Management and outcome of gastrointestinal stromal tumors of the duodenum

Duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are uncommon and relatively small subset of GISTs whose optimal surgical procedure has not been well defined. We conducted this study to present the surgical experience in our institution and to analyze the postoperative outcome of duodenal GISTs.

A retrospective clinicopathologic analysis was performed for nine duodenal GIST patients who underwent surgery from May 2001 to April 2009. The median follow-up period was 22 months (range: 13-61 months).

A total of nine patients (six males/three females) with a median age of 52 years (range: 45-73 years) were treated. The most common presentation was abdominal pain (45%), and the second portion of duodenum (45%) was most common dominant site. All of the patients underwent limited resection: there were seven wedge resections with primary closures (five open/two laparoscopic) and two segmental resections with end-to-end duodenojejunostomies. The median tumor size was 3.5 cm (range: 1.9-5.5 cm), and the mitotic count was less than fivemitoses/50 high power fields (HPF) in all cases. None patients had neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy. All of the patients were alive and disease-free.

We obtained excellent disease-free survival following limited resection with clear margins. Limited resection should be considered a treatment option for duodenal GIST.