Esophageal Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour: A Case Report

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) represent 0.1-3% of all neoplasms of the digestive tract and only in 1-2% of cases they arise in the esophagus. The most frequent clinical manifestations of esophageal GISTs (E-GISTs) are dysphagia, atypical chest pain, cough or gastrointestinal bleeding. Preoperative study is made by endoscopy, echo-endoscopy, biopsy and computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. The preoperative diagnosis is difficult because only histological examination can differentiate them from other esophageal tumours (as leiomyoma, schwannoma and leiomyosarcoma) and rarely a biopsy is performed at a submucosal well-circumscribed esophageal mass. Surgery is the first choice approach for localized and resectable cases. Thoracoscopic or laparoscopic enucleation is sufficient for small-sized and well-capsulated tumours, instead, esophagectomy should be considered in all other cases. Imatinib is the drug of choice for pharmacologic treatment in advanced disease. We report our anecdotal experience of a 63-year old male patient presented at our Unit complaining of dysphagia and underwent transhiatal laparoscopic enucleation of E-GIST.