A clinical study on GIST in Babylon

Abstract

Author(s): Monem Makki Alshok*

GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor) is a type of soft tissue sarcoma arising from interstitial cell of Cajal in GIT. It is important to note that all GISTs can be cancerous. Disease-free survival rates (refer only to the percentage of people who experience a complete remission after finishing treatment) can be fulfilled by early surgery and therapy using tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Aim: To study the behaviour of this uncommon GIT tumour in our patients and the overall survival rate following medical treatment.

Method: 34 patients with GIST were studied in Merjan Teaching hospital, their diagnosis made on OGD and histopathology and Immunohistochemistry. The period of the study started during the year 2013 to end of January 2015, the clinical manifestation and presentation and the main methods of treatment are studied.

Results: From these 32 patients with GIST, their age range from 22 years to 88 years with mean of 41, 16 are male and 18 are female making slight female preponderance. The main method of diagnosis is by OGD and two patients present with abdominal mass and anaemia and the diagnosis of GIST was made after laparotomy and histopathology and immunohistochemistry using KIT and CD 34 tests. The most common clinical presentations include anaemia, upper GIT bleeding and dyspepsia. All the patients were treated by Imatinib (30) and Sunitinib (2). Two patients died during the course of treatment making mortality rate of 6.3%. The overall prognosis and survival were determined by site, size and spread of tumour and 26 patients continue to receive CT during the year 2014. In conclusion GIST is a kind of tumour that has a wide spectrum of malignant potential and there is no clear risk factor were identified.

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