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Updated: Jun 29, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancing Early Detection and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumors
Published on: February 16, 2024
Prevalence and natural course of incidental gastric subepithelial tumors
Dae-Hyuk Heo1, Min A Yang1, Jae Sun Song1
1Department of Internal Medicine, Presbyterian Medical Center, Jeonju, Korea.
Background/Aims:
Gastric subepithelial tumors (SETs) are often encountered during the upper gastrointestinal endoscopic screening. We assessed the prevalence of gastric SETs and the risk factors for their progression.
Methods:
We reviewed the electronic medical records of 30,754 patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopic screening at our medical center between January 2013 and December 2016.
Results:
Among the 30,754 patients examined, 599 (1.94%) had gastric SETs. The prevalence increased with age and was 9.56% in patients aged ≥70 years. In total, 262 patients underwent serial endoscopy for more than 6 months. The median age was 68 years (interquartile range [IQR], 61-74), and the number of females was 167 (63.7%). During a median follow-up of 58 months (IQR, 38-75), 22 patients (8.4%) showed significant changes in tumor size. An irregular border (odds ratio, 4.623; 95% confidence interval, 1.093-19.558; p=0.037) was a significant risk factor for progression. Seven patients underwent surgical or endoscopic resections. The pathologies of gastric SETs included leiomyomas (n=3), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (n=2), and lipomas (n=2).
Conclusions:
The prevalence of gastric SETs increases with age. Most gastric SETs do not progress during long-term endoscopic examinations, and the risk of an increase in size is low in asymptomatic small SETs without irregular borders.
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