Surgery for stomach cancer is performed to remove all of the stomach cancer and some of the surrounding healthy tissue, your doctor may remove early-stage tumors from the lining of your stomach, remove a portion of your stomach (subtotal gastrectomy), remove your entire stomach (total gastrectomy), and remove lymph nodes to look for cancer. All of these surgeries are performed under general anesthetic. With chemotherapy, a drug is used to kill cancer cells, while with radiation therapy, high-powered energy beams are used to kill cancer. Your doctor may also recommend targeted therapy or immunotherapy, which uses targeted drugs or your own immune system to fight cancer.