Hi my mum has stomach cancer and is on stage 4/5. She has recently been put on steriods, oral morphine and has a patch on her upper arm . She takes around 15ml of oral morphine when the pain breaks through which is usually after 7/8 hours at present. My question is although my mum has loss weight (not too much) and her appitite has decresed but, she still manages to eat small amounts (sometimes she vomits after she eats) my mum is still very mobile when she is not in pain, she can walk around, and do most things- does this refer to what stage she may be in her life? ie if she is mobile does that mean she still has longer to live?
HELLO stage cancer means that it has spread to lymph nodes and distant organs. It is incurable, but patient can be provided with good life by palliative gastrectomy and chemoradiation. Average survival is 14-15 months with 5 year survival of 4.6%. How long an individual survives depends upon various factors related to patient, type of cancer, extent of disease, palliative treatment offered.