Gastric stromal tumors, a retrospective - a study. About 19 cases

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to define the therapeutic attitude to be adopted in front of a gastric stromal tumor, to estimate the results and to define the prognostic factors of these rare tumors. We report a retrospective study about 19 cases of gastric stromal tumors reported over a period of 12 years going from January, 1993 till December, 2004. All the patients were operated. Diagnosis was established by the histological and immunohistological study of gastric resection or biopsies. It was about 8 men and 11 women of whom the average age was of 62 years. The symptomatology was dominated by abdominal pain [63% of cases] and digestive bleeding [52% of cases]. A palpable mass was found in 16%of cases. The tumor location was antrum in 13 cases, fundus in 5 cases and under cardial in 1 case. A synchronous gastric and small intestinal locations was found in 1 case. The average tumoral size was 8.2cm ranging from 1.7 to 30cm. The tumor resection was achieved in 18 cases [95%]. It was widened to the adjacent organs in 1 case. Morbidity raised 5.2% and there was no operating death. At pathological examination the tumor was of weak rank of wickedness in 8 cases, high rank in 8 cases and in vague potential in 3 cases. The average follow-up was of 27 months [2 to 96 months]. During the postoperative follow-up, 3 cases of recurrence were diagnosed. The 2-year -overall survival was 83%. The prognostic factors influencing the overall survival were the high cellular density [p=0.01], local recurrence event [p=0.03] and high degree of malignancy [p=0.0002]. The treatment of gastric stromal tumors is surgical. Gastrectomy and wedge resections passing in macroscopically normal tissue are the mainstay of the treatment. Enucleating resection should be avoided. The lymph node dissection is not recommended. The new chemotherapeutic agents [the tyrosine kinase inhibitors] seem promising and could modify the current therapeutic attitude in the future