Gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the stomach diagnosed preoperatively

A case of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) of the stomach is reported. GIST has been applied to gastrointestinal submucosal tumors mainly composed of spindle shaped cells that represent neither typical features of myogenic nor neurogenic tumors, and immunohistochemical studies are necessary for the diagnosis of GIST. The patient was a 39-year-old man and was successfully diagnosed to be GIST (uncommitted type) preoperatively by immunohistochemical studies of biopsy specimens from an ulcerative submucosal tumor with bridging folds in the fundus, approximately 3.0 cm in size. Local excision of the stomach was performed. This is the 3rd case of GIST with a preoperative diagnosis to appear in the literature in Japan. For gastroenterological surgeons, it is critical to select the most suitable surgical procedure. In the present, because the number of papers reporting GIST of the stomach is small, it is impossible to review GIST clinicopathologically. We reviewed the surgical procedure for gastric leiomyosarcomas, because of including many cases with GIST in them. Therefore, we performed 54 cases of gastric GIST in the literature, compared with 92 cases of gastric leiomyosarcoma. As a result, it was thought that local excision for gastric GIST should be preferred.