Abdominal Tumor Surgery

Non-cancerous tumours of the stomach

A non-cancerous, or benign, tumour of the stomach is a growth that does not spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body. Non-cancerous tumours are not usually life-threatening. They are typically removed with surgery and do not usually come back (recur).

There are many types of non-cancerous tumours of the stomach but most are rare.

Treatments

The standard treatment for non-cancerous stomach tumours is surgery. The type of surgery mostly depends on the size of the tumour and includes the following:

• endoscopic biopsy – to remove single polyps that are less than 2 cm
• gastrostomy – uses an incision, or a surgical cut, in the stomach wall to remove polyps larger than 5 cm or many flat, or sessile, polyps
• gastric resection – to remove a small tumour along with a margin of healthy tissue
• removal of all or part of the stomach (gastrectomy) – may be used for many polyps

Some people with polyposis syndromes may need several treatments to remove polyps. You may not have treatment if a tumour is small (less than 1 cm) and isn’t causing any signs or symptoms. However, you may need to have regular checkups with an endoscopy to see if it grows or starts to look different.