Digestive system cancers
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Follow the links below to find trusted information about digestive system cancers.
Last reviewed: May 2018
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Pancreatic Cancer - Information, Treatment & Support - CanTeen
Pancreatic cancer is an uncommon condition that usually affects older people. Learn more about causes, diagnosis and treatments with CanTeen.
Read more on CanTeen website
Liver Cancer - Information, Treatment & Support - CanTeen
The liver is the largest organ in the body and cancers of this organ develop into carcinomas. Learn more about causes and treatments of liver cancer with CanTeen.
Read more on CanTeen website
Bowel cancer screening and prevention | Health and wellbeing | Queensland Government
Changes to your bowels can indicate a number of health conditions including cancer. If you notice changes to your regular bowel habits, especially if you notice blood in your stools you should consult your doctor. Under the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program Australians turning 50, 55, 60 or 65 will be automatically offered a free bowel cancer screening kit to help detect any abnormalities early so that further investigation or treatment can occur.
Read more on Queensland Health website
Bowel Cancer - Information, Treatment & Support - CanTeen
Bowel cancer, or colorectal cancer, is the second most common cancer in both men and women. Learn more about causes, diagnosis and treatments with CanTeen.
Read more on CanTeen website
Stomach Cancer - Information, Treatment & Support - CanTeen
The stomach is the organ that regulates your digestion and cancers can include carcinomas and lymphomas. Learn more about causes and treatment of stomach cancer with CanTeen.
Read more on CanTeen website
Bowel cancer - NT.GOV.AU
Prevention, detection tests, symptoms and treatment for bowel cancer.
Read more on NT Health website
Oesophageal cancer: what is it? - myDr.com.au
Find out about oesophageal cancer, including risk factors, causes and symptoms of this disease.
Read more on myDr website
Pancreatic cancer fact sheet
Pancreatic cancer occurs when abnormal cells within the pancreas grow in an uncontrolled way
Read more on Cancer Australia website
Support for people with colorectal cancer
Information on treatment and support services available to people with colorectal cancer.
Read more on WA Health website
What are the risk factors for bowel cancer?
The cause of bowel cancer is still unknown; however research has identified a number of factors that increase the risk of developing bowel cancer.
Read more on WA Health website
Top results
Surgery for resolving symptoms associated with malignant bowel obstruction in advanced gynaecological and gastrointestinal cancers | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Endoscopic mucosal resection for early stomach cancer | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Drain after gastrectomy for gastric cancer | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Omentoplasty for oesophagogastrostomy after oesophagectomy | Cochrane
Oesophagectomy followed by oesophagogastrostomy, in which an anastomosis between the residual oesophagus and the stomach substitute is made, remains the standard surgery for patients with oesophageal cancer. Whichever surgical procedure is chosen, that is, transthoracic oesophagectomy (TTE) with direct visualisation of the thoracic oesophagus or transhiatal oesophagectomy (THE) with avoidance of a thoracic incision, postoperative anastomotic leakage causes considerable morbidity and mortality. Omentoplasty, in which the omentum is used to wrap the anastomosis, has been recommended by some researchers to prevent postoperative anastomotic leakageone of the most serious complications of oesophagectomy followed by oesophagogastrostomy for patients with oesophageal cancer. This updated systematic review, including 633 participants in three randomised controlled trials, suggests that omentoplasty could reduce the incidence of anastomotic leakage and the duration of hospital stay after operation. Although the difference in anastomotic leakage was significant only among patients undergoing THE, the risk ratios of omentoplasty for THE and TTE were similar. In addition, omentoplasty does not appear to increase or decrease hospital mortality nor the incidence of postoperative complications, such as anastomotic stricture, pulmonary and cardiac complications, infection, vocal cord palsy and perijejunostomy leakage. Additional clinical trials are needed to investigate the influences of omentoplasty on the incidence of anastomotic leakage and anastomotic stricture, long-term survival, duration of hospital stay and quality of life after oesophagectomy and oesophagogastrostomy when different surgical approaches are used.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Daily intake of 1 gr dietary calcium may have moderate protective effect on development of colorectal adenomatous polyps | Cochrane
Daily intake of 1 gr dietary calcium may have moderate protective effect on development of colorectal adenomatous polyps
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Effect of molecular-targeted therapy on the progress and survival of people in the late stages of stomach cancer | Cochrane
Effect of molecular-targeted therapy on the progress and survival of people in the late stages of stomach cancer
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Screening for oesophageal cancer | Cochrane
Oesophageal cancer is a common cause of cancer related death in the world. The prognosis in the advanced stages is unfavourable, but the early oesophageal cancers are asymptomatic and curable, and usually go undetected until they have spread beyond the oesophageal wall. Endoscopy with iodine staining or cytologic examination are two common screening tests for early oesophageal cancer. These screening tests were started in the 1970s, but the true benefit is inconsistent and is uncertain due to lead-time bias, which is the amount of time by which the diagnosis is advanced by the screening procedure; and length-time bias, where screening is more likely to detect slow-growing disease rather than altering the person's duration of life. This review intended to determine the efficacy of the two screening tests for oesophageal cancer. We identified 3482 studies but none were RCTs of screening. Several non-comparative studies showed that the screening tests may increase the incidence of reported oesophageal cancer and improve the survival results after a screening test, but these results could indicate bias rather than a true causative effect. Therefore, there is a strong need for randomised controlled trials (RCTs), especially long-term RCTs, to determine the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and any adverse effects of screening for oesophageal cancer.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Dietary flavonoid for preventing colorectal neoplasms | Cochrane
Eight studies with 390,769 participants, mainly observational, were included in this systematic review. The aim of the studies reviewed was to determine an association of the intake of total flavonoids, and eight main flavonoid subclasses, with colorectal neoplasms including CRC and adenomas. The majority of the studies were of medium to high methodological quality. The evidence that intake of dietary flavonoids reduces the risk of colorectal neoplasms was conflicting, and could partly be explained due to difficulties in quantifying the intake of flavonoids. Therefore, the association of dietary flavonoids and prevention of colorectal neoplasms remains unproven.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Percutaneous ethanol injection for the treatment of early liver cancer | Cochrane
Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. In the majority of people, liver cancer is diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease and is mostly accompanied by liver cirrhosis. In high-income countries, about 30% of people present with the more favourable early liver cancer. For these people, percutaneous ablation techniques (destruction of the cancer cells by heat, cold, or chemical substances such as ethanol), surgical resection (removal of part of the liver), and liver transplantation (which is limited by organ donor shortage) are currently considered potentially curative treatments. We aimed to investigate the role of percutaneous injection of ethanol (PEI) and acetic acid (PAI) as compared with other treatments or no intervention for early liver cancer. This review excluded the effects of radiofrequency thermal ablation as this has been already addressed in a previous Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group systematic review.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Irinotecan chemotherapy combined with fluoropyrimidines versus irinotecan alone for overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with advanced and/or metastatic colorectal cancer | Cochrane
Irinotecan chemotherapy combined with fluoropyrimidines versus irinotecan alone for overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with advanced and/or metastatic colorectal cancer
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
