From a Persistent Burning Sensation to a Cancer-Free Life

How a 54-year-old homemaker from Karnal beat locally advanced stomach cancer with a radical gastrectomy at BLK-Max Cancer Centre.

The Story Behind the Smile

For nearly a year, Mrs. Sunita Sharma — a 54-year-old homemaker from Karnal — had been living with what her family doctor called “stubborn acidity”. The burning in her upper abdomen would settle for a few weeks on antacids and then return with quiet persistence. By the time she walked into our OPD at BLK-Max, she had lost almost 9 kilograms, was struggling to eat even soft chapati, and had begun avoiding family meals out of sheer discomfort.

“I thought it was just gas. Everyone in our family has acidity,” she told us at her first visit, accompanied by her husband, a retired bank officer. “Nobody in our village talks about cancer of the stomach.”

The Diagnosis

Her local gastroenterologist had finally ordered an upper GI endoscopy after she developed black-coloured stools. The scope revealed an ulcerated growth along the lesser curvature of the stomach. Biopsy confirmed what the family had feared — moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma.

At BLK-Max we completed her staging within 72 hours:

• CECT abdomen + thorax: A 4.2 cm tumour in the body of the stomach, with three enlarged perigastric nodes. No distant spread.
• Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS): Tumour invading the serosa (T3).
• HER2 testing: Negative.
• Tumour board verdict: Locally advanced gastric cancer, cT3N1M0 — a candidate for perioperative chemotherapy followed by curative surgery.

“Dr. Abhishek sat with us for almost forty minutes. He drew the stomach on a piece of paper and explained every step — what the chemotherapy would do, what the surgery would remove, what life would look like afterwards. For the first time in a year, I felt I was in safe hands.” — Mr. Sharma, husband

The Treatment Plan

Phase 1 — Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (FLOT regimen)

In coordination with our medical oncology colleagues, Mrs. Sharma received four cycles of the FLOT regimen (Fluorouracil, Leucovorin, Oxaliplatin, Docetaxel) over 8 weeks. A restaging scan showed an excellent response — the tumour had shrunk by nearly 40% and the nodes had regressed.

Phase 2 — Surgery

On the day of admission, Mrs. Sharma underwent an Open Radical Subtotal Gastrectomy with D2 Lymphadenectomy and Roux-en-Y reconstruction. The procedure took just under four hours.

• Approach: Open (chosen over robotic due to the previous response pattern and the patient’s wish for a more conventional approach after detailed counselling).
• Resection: Distal 4/5th of the stomach removed along with the omentum and all perigastric, hepatic, splenic and coeliac axis nodes (28 nodes harvested).
• Reconstruction: Roux-en-Y gastrojejunostomy — preserving as much functional stomach as possible to support near-normal eating.
• Blood loss: 180 ml. No transfusion required.

Phase 3 — Recovery

Mrs. Sharma was extubated on the table and shifted to the GI HDU. She began sips of water on day 2, soft diet by day 5, and walked unassisted to the OPD on day 6. She was discharged on the 8th post-operative day — the day this photograph was taken.

Final Histopathology

• ypT2N0M0 — significant downstaging after chemotherapy
• All 28 lymph nodes free of disease
• All resection margins clear (R0)
• Marked tumour regression grading (TRG 2)

Life After Surgery

Mrs. Sharma completed her remaining 4 cycles of post-operative FLOT under our medical oncology team. Eighteen months on, she is back to running her household, has regained 6 kg of the weight she lost, and travels independently to Delhi every six months for her follow-up scans. All her surveillance imaging — at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months — has been clean.

“I made daal-chawal for the entire family last Diwali — that was my real proof of recovery. I am grateful to Dr. Abhishek and the whole BLK-Max team. They gave me back not just my health, but my role in the family.” — Mrs. Sunita Sharma

Dr. Aggarwal’s Reflection

“Gastric cancer in India is still detected late because the early symptoms mimic acidity. Mrs. Sharma’s case is a textbook example of what modern multimodality treatment can achieve — chemotherapy to shrink the disease, a meticulous D2 dissection to ensure oncological clearance, and a reconstruction that lets the patient eat near-normally. We must keep telling our communities: if heartburn lasts more than four weeks, please get an endoscopy.“

Disclaimer: Patient name has been changed and image used with informed written consent. Individual outcomes vary; results described are specific to this patient and do not represent a guarantee of similar results in other cases.