Survival of patients with ruptured gastrointestinal stromal tumour treated with adjuvant imatinib in a randomised trial.

BACKGROUND

Patients with ruptured gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) have poor prognosis. Little information is available about how adjuvant imatinib influences survival.

METHODS

We explored recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with ruptured GIST who participated in a randomised trial (SSG XVIII/AIO), where 400 patients with high-risk GIST were allocated to adjuvant imatinib for either 1 year or 3 years after surgery. Of the 358 patients with confirmed localised GIST, 73 (20%) had rupture reported. The ruptures were classified retrospectively using the Oslo criteria.

RESULTS

Most ruptures were major, four reported ruptures were reclassified unruptured. The 69 patients with rupture had inferior RFS and OS compared with 289 patients with unruptured GIST (10-year RFS 21% vs. 55%, OS 59% vs. 78%, respectively). Three-year adjuvant imatinib did not significantly improve RFS or OS of the patients with rupture compared with 1-year treatment, but in the largest mutational subset with KIT exon 11 deletion/indel mutation OS was higher in the 3-year group than in the 1-year group (10-year OS 94% vs. 54%).

CONCLUSIONS

About one-fifth of ruptured GISTs treated with adjuvant imatinib did not recur during the first decade of follow-up. Relatively high OS rates were achieved despite rupture.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT00116935.