Evaluation of Cases of GIST in the Ceará Cancer Hospital: a 8-year Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: The gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) represent the majority of mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract. Objective: To describe the prognostic factors and clinical presentation of GIST diagnosed in patients treated at the Ceará Cancer Hospital in the period 2000 to 2008. Method: A retrospective cohort study, by reviewing records of 45 patients diagnosed with GIST . The statistical method used was the descriptive statistical analysis. Results: The median age was 65 years. The tumor size ranged between 1 and 27 cm. Pain (73.3%) and palpable mass (51.1%) were the most common symptoms. The main location sites were stomach and small intestine. Surgical resection was the treatment used in 97.8% of patients, obtaining a complete resection in most of them (77.8%). Imatinib was used in 57.8% of patients, and in most cases (73.1%), it was used as a palliative treatment and, in others, as an adjuvant treatment. Among the evaluated patients, 80.0% had tumors with high risk of malignancy and the main sites of recurrence were the liver (50.0%) and the peritoneum (31.8%). The overall survival in 5 years was 60% and the overall recurrence rate was 55.0% (n=22). Among the prognostic factors tested, only the type of resection exerted an adverse impact on patient survival (p=0.05). Conclusion: In this study, the only prognostic factor that had an impact on overall survival was the type of resection, and patients who underwent complete resection (R0) had better survival compared with those who underwent R2/ 3 resection.