The commonest symptoms are non-deliberate weight loss and upper abdominal pain. Some may have difficulty swallowing if the tumour is near the top of the stomach. Another way patients are diagnosed with stomach cancer is if they are found to be anaemic, sometimes an endoscopy is done to check if there is a source of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Occasionally the bleeding can be severe and patients have black tar like stools, as the blood passes though the gut. Gastric ulcers that are benign can produce the same type of bleeding.
