[Gastrointestinal stromal tumor: a report of eight cases]

Diagnosis and treatment of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor have changed because of recent genetic and molecular biological studies which have a direct impact on longer survival.

A retrospective research was carried out from November 1998 to July 2004 at the university and in the private clinics of the authors who identified GIST cases based upon positive tests to c-kit (CD117).

The eight patients that were evaluated had an average age of 53.2 and 75% were females. The most common clinical feature was abdominal mass (62.5%). The more frequent tumor site was the stomach (62.5%) followed by the small bowel (37.5%). Mean tumor size was 10.6 cm. Resection with negative microscopic margins was possible in all patients. Tumor recurrence occurred in four cases which were treated with imatinib mesilate (STI-571) with partial response in three cases and complete response in the other. Seven patients (87.5%) are alive with a mean follow-up of 33.4 months (9 to 60 months). Due to the limited number of patients it was not possible to correlate biological behavior of the tumor with its size and mitotic count.

There was prevalence in the female gender. Most common tumor site was the stomach. Histological examinations did not disclose any correlation between tumor size and number of mitosis. At an average follow-up of 33.4 months, the mean survival was 87.5%.