Gastrointestinal stromal tumor: analysis of 146 cases of the center of reference Gastrointestinal stromal tumor: analysis of 146 cases of the center of reference of the National Cancer Institute - INCA of the National Cancer Institute - INCA of the National Cancer Institute - INCA of the National Cancer Institute - INCA of the National Cancer Institute - INCA

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the treatment of GIST in INCA. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all cases of GIST treated at INCAin the period from 1997 to 2009. Results: We analyzed 146 patients with a mean age of 44.5 years and female predominance. The mainsymptom was abdominal pain. We observed the occurrence of a second primary tumor in 22% of cases and 92% of the immunohistochemistryexams were positive for CD117. The most frequent location was in the stomach and the high-risk group was predominant. Surgery wasconsidered R0 (extensive) in 70% of the cases and the main sites of metastases were liver and peritoneum. Overall survival in two and five yearswas, respectively, 86% and 59%. There was a significant difference between overall survival (p = 0.29) of the high-risk group versus the other.Conclusion: Our patients presented mainly in the form of high-risk disease, with obvious impact on survival. The use of imatinib improvedsurvival of patients with recurrent and metastatic disease. We should study its use in the setting of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy toimprove results of the high risk group. The creation of reference centers is a need for the study of rare diseases.Key words: Neoplasms. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Surgery. Survivorship. Mesylates.