[Gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Analysis of 40 cases]

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors represent less than 3% of all digestive tumors. They are primarily located in the stomach and the small intestine. The curative treatment is surgical resection. In the case of unresectable tumor or advanced disease, imatinib is the treatment of choice. The purpose of this retrospective study was to describe the characteristics of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors treated at our institution in the period 2000-2015. We analyzed 40 consecutive patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (mean age 58-year old, range 33-84). The mean 5-year survival was 30.5%. At diagnosis, 30 patients had localized disease (75%); 14 of them received adjuvant imatinib and 15 follow-up on observation. In this group the disease-free interval was 55 months. In patients with advanced disease, the progression-free interval was 30 months.