My mom was recently diagnosed with linitis plastica. We weren't sure if she was stage 3 or stage 4 since the quack who did her surgery didn't check the lymph nodes. The quack told us it wasn't cancer. We didn't know it was cancer til three days after the surgery. Make sure you find a surgeon who specializes in cancer surgery not someone out to make some quick money from the insurance. My cousin who is a physicial consulted her oncologist friends said that you would have a better chance of being cured of this linitis plastica by getting the whipple. And the whipple should be done at sloan kettering or at md anderson. You need to find a surgeon who has done at least 20-30 whipples a year since this is a major surgery. We now know that my mom has stage 4 bc the cancer came back and the cancer is in her colon, small intestine, large intestine, and stomach cancer. My mom started having trouble keeping solids done since middle of December 2006 bc of the huge tumor in her colon. Now she is on a liquid diet with concentrated drinks. It breaks my heart to see my mom enduring so much pain. Right now, she's taking Xeloda. Right now, we can just pray that Jesus can take her cancer away. I would say that this cancer is hereditary bc my mom's mom also died of this and we are speculating that my grandmother's father also died of the same disease. My cousin the physician also said this cancer is hard to detect bc it's diffused. It's best to get an endoscopy done with a deeper biopsy. I hope all who are currently suffering from this horrible cancer will survive this.