OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and prognostic factors of gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors(GIST) in the stomach.

METHODSThe clinicopathological data of 132 patients with gastric GIST between January 1998 and December 2008 were analyzed retrospectively, and the prognostic factors were evaluated.

RESULTSTumor locations were the cardia or fundus (50, 37.9%), the stomach body (62, 47%),the antrum (13, 9.8%), and two regions were found in 6 cases (4.5%), three regions in 1 cases (0.8%). Tumor size ranged from 1.0 to 27.0 cm with an average of 9.4 cm. All the patients underwent complete tumor resection, including multi-organ resection in 41 cases. Thirty-four cases underwent lymph node dissection. All the lymph nodes were negative. The positive rate was 93.2% (23/132) for CD 117 and 82.6% (109/132) for CD34. The 1-,3- and 5-year survival rates of the 118 cases with follow up were 94.7%, 80.2%, and 56.6%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that the differences in Fletcher classification, tumor size, infiltration to surrounding tissue, preoperative metastasis, and adjuvant postoperative therapy with imatinib were related to the survival rates. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that Fletcher classification, preoperative metastasis and adjuvant postoperative therapy with imatinib were independent poor prognostic factors for survival.

CONCLUSIONSPreoperative metastasis is an independent factor predicting poor prognosis of gastric GIST. Fletcher classification can be used to evaluate the biological behaviors and prognosis, while surgery is the main therapy and targeted therapy can improve survival of gastric GIST.