Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: 16 years' experience within a university hospital

Aim: the aim was to convey our 16-year experience regarding gastrointestinal stromal tumors within in a high volume university hospital. Factors that may impact on patient survival were evaluated. Material and methods: all patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal stromal tumors in our clinic over a 16-year period were retrospectively evaluated. All patients included in the study had their tumors surgically resected. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Survival time comparisons between groups were performed using the log-rank test. The effect of continuous variables on survival times were evaluated via a Cox-regression analysis with a backward conditional method. Results: one hundred and thirty-five patients (76 males and 59 females) were included into the study and the mean age was 62.8 +/- 13.3 years. Overall survival time was 121.3 +/- 7.0 months and the 5-year survival rate was 66.6 +/- 4.2%. Patients with colorectal tumors had significantly lower survival times than patients with tumors located in the stomach (p = 0.001) and small intestine (p = 0.033). Patients with moderate risk scores had a significantly longer survival compared to patients with high risk scores (p = 0.003) and patients with tumor recurrence had a significantly shorter survival (p < 0.001). There was no significant relationship between survival and factors such as gender and tumor size (p > 0.05). However, age, Ki-67 and the mitotic index were poor prognostic factors and C-kit was considered as a good prognostic factor. Conclusion: some of the findings in this study are consistent with published data. However, our data significantly differs from previous studies such as the common finding of the effect of gender and tumor size on survival.