Certain Gastrointestinal Tumors Associated With Higher Mortality Than Expected

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are most commonly found in the stomach and small intestine. They have significant variability in terms of size and malignant behavior. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have determined that certain GISTs are more deadly than previously reported in medical literature. The findings are published online in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. "While GISTs are rare, we have found that certain groups of these tumors result in a much higher mortality than expected," said Jason Sicklick, assistant professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a surgical oncologist at UC San Diego Health. "The five-year mortality rate for malignant GISTs of less than two centimeters is 12.1%. This finding may be helpful in creating new guidelines for the treatment of these tumors."

Sicklick noted that up to 30% of patients have GISTs less than two centimeters in size, or slightly more than one-half inch. More than 79% of patients have localized disease, while 11.4% have regional or distant metastatic disease. Previously, researchers did not expect any disease to have spread.

"For this study, we identified 378 patients with malignant GISTs of less than two centimeters between 2001 and 2011 from the SEER database," said Taylor M. Coe, first author and fourth-year medical student at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "While the distribution of disease was almost equal between men and women, African-Americans are 2.1 times more likely than Caucasians to develop GISTs. The reasons are unknown and need to be further evaluated."

Sicklick added that further studies are needed to develop novel risk assessments for patients with these small tumors and to determine appropriate indications for surgery and/or medical therapy.

Source-Eurekalert