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Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Laparoscopy-endoscopy Cooperative Surgery for the Treatment of Gastric Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors
Published on: February 19, 2022
Surgical resection of gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in octogenarians
Adrienne B Shannon1, Yun Song1, Douglas L Fraker2
1Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, 4 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, USA.
Background:
Localized gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are rare tumors typically managed with surgery, but outcomes among octogenarians remain less studied.
Methods:
Octogenarian patients with stage I-III gastric GISTs were identified from the National Cancer Database and classified by resection status. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses analyzed 5-year overall survival (OS). Ninety-day mortality was analyzed following 1:1 propensity score matching.
Results:
Identified octogenarians (N = 949) who underwent resection (N = 632) had improved adjusted OS (71% vs 59.6%, HR 0.75, p 0.049) as compared to non-resected patients. Following matching, 90-day mortality was 5.7% and 11% in resected and non-resected patients (p 0.052), respectively. After exclusion of patients with 90-day mortality, resected patients maintained an OS advantage (77.3% vs 71.1%, HR 0.64, p 0.028).
Conclusions:
The majority of octogenarians with localized gastric GIST are treated with surgery portending improved survival but an appreciable mortality, suggesting a necessity for careful selection of older patients for surgery.
