Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: Innovation from Diagnosis to Treatment Based on 15 Years of Experience of a Peripheral Hospital in Portugal. To investigate fifteen years of experience, in managing GISTs, according to best clinical practice, on a peripheral Portuguese Hospital. Define the behavior of GIST’s and the association between the histological, immunohistochemistry characteristics and disease progression.
An expert treatment decision was made according to the National Institute of Health criteria of Gastrointestinal stromal tumor’s risk of recurrence after surgery. Statistical study was performed using SPSS version. Results: Sixty-three cases were evaluated, 61.9% in female patients and 38.1% male. The median age at diagnosis was 69 years.
A progressive increase in the incidence of GISTs was documented since 1999 to 2014. The most common source locations was the stomach with forty-five patients, When assessing the Mitotic count, 27% was superior to 5 mitosis/50HPF and 73% was inferior to 5 mitosis /50HPF.
Only two patients were CD117 negative. Only 7.9% received palliative treatment with imatinib and sunitinib.
We report, fifteen years of experience in managing GISTs on a peripheral Portuguese Hospital. Surgery is the gold standard therapy. But in the adjuvant setting, recent studies have shown that imatinib, a tyrosine kinase, may change the natural history in high and very high risk tumors. On the other hand, recent molecular innovation has arisen concerning molecular characterization of these tumors, with direct consequences on the appropriate targeted treatment. Besides cost-effectiveness studies
approved in treating specific groups of patients, this still continues as a heavy burden for the National Health Care system
Cancer Stud Mol Med Open J. 2016; 3(1): 7-13. doi: 10.17140/ CSMMOJ-3-115