Noncancerous (benign) tumors of the stomach are unlikely to cause symptoms or medical problems, so they often remain undiagnosed and untreated. Occasionally, however, some bleed and are then removed during endoscopy (in which a flexible viewing tube [endoscope] is passed through the mouth to view the esophagus) or surgery.
Stomach polyps (uncommon noncancerous round growths that project into the stomach cavity) may become cancerous (that is, they are precancerous). Therefore, polyps are usually removed using endoscopy. Through the endoscope, an electrical current (electrocautery) or heat (thermal obliteration) is applied directly to the growth, or a high-energy beam of light is directed at the growth (laser phototherapy).
