Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: Institute of Oncology—Dr. “Luis Razetti” experience, Caracas, Venezuela.
e21512 Background: Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors are a heterogeneous group of tumors with clinical features and specific genetic alterations, which represent 1-3% of all gastrointestinal cancers. Imatinib, is the standard treatment in advanced and localized disease, and has demonstrated benefit in overall survival, progression free survival and disease free survival. Methods: The primary end point was to evaluate overall survival in patients with locally advanced, metastatic and early stage GIST treated with Imatinib; secondary end points were to evaluate disease-free survival and progression free survival. We included 34 patients with GIST treated between January 2005 and December 2011. Results: The most affected gender was male (55.88%), the average age was 51-60 years (26.47%), and most had localized disease at diagnosis (73.52%), mainly in the stomach (52.94%). As for the primary treatment, 25 underwent surgery (73.5%), applying adjuvant Imatinib in 18 patients (75%).The OS and DFS was higher in patients with localized disease compared with age (p = 0.0001 respectively). Regarding the use of adjuvant Imatinib, it produced clinical benefit in DFS and OS of 50 and 60 months respectively, regardless of risk. In patients with advanced or metastatic disease Imatinib was associated with higher PFS (p = 0.055) and OS (p = 0.1120). Relapses occurred in 24% of patients regardless of risk and the use of Imatinib. Conclusions: In our study we concluded that radical surgery and the use of Imatinib in GIST patients produce important clinical benefits which translate into higher survival rates.