Clinicopathologic characteristics of gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the stomach.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study was undertaken to investigate a surgical role in treating gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) of the stomach and to find their behavior and prognostic factors.

METHODOLOGY

The clinicopathologic results of 112 patients with gastric GISTs who underwent surgery from December 1999 to August 2006 were reviewed.

RESULTS

Forty (35.7%) patients had no symptoms. Of a total of 112 patients, curative resections were performed on 105 (93.8%). There were 41 (36.6%) high-risk patients. The mean follow-up period was 34.3 months (1-82 months) and there were two deaths. Six (5.7%) of the 105 patients who received curative resections had recurrences and all recurrences occurred only in high-risk patients. Univariate analysis showed that tumor size and mitotic count were prognostic for disease-free survival of GIST patients (p=0.0004 and p<0.0001, respectively), but multivariate analysis identified mitotic count as the only prognostic factor for disease-free survival of GIST patients (p=0.039).

CONCLUSIONS

The curative resection rate was high in GISTs of the stomach and they were treated using various surgical procedures. Patient survival after curative resection was good. Mitotic count was the independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival and only high-risk patients had recurrences.