Gastrointestinal stromal tumor
Gastrointestinal stromal tumor
Updated: 02/17/2021
© Jun Wang, MD, PhD
General features
- Most common mesenchymal tumor of gastrointestinal tract
- Unknown etiology
- May be familial
- Most commonly seen in stomach and proximal small intestine
- Arises from or is differentiated towards interstitial cell of Cajal
- More common in elder adults, male
- May be malignant
Clinical presentations
- Asymptomatic or non specific upper GI or systemic symptoms
- May be associated with neurofibromatosis type 1, Carney’s triad (gastric GIST, paraganglioma, pulmonary chondroma, NOT Carney syndrome), familial GIST syndrome, Carney-Stratakis syndrome
Key pathological features
- Submucosal mass
- Solitary, well-circumscribed, fleshy mass
- Covered by ulcerated or intact mucosa
- 4 main histological types: benign cellular spindle cell tumor, spindle cell sarcoma, benign epithelioid gastric stromal tumor, malignant epithelioid gastric stromal tumor
- Mixed patterns may be seen
Genetic abnormalities
- Activating mutation of c-kit
- Some have PDGFR-alpha mutation
Markers
- Positive for CD34, CD117 (c-kit)
Treatment
- Surgery
- Targeted therapy (imatinib mesylate, sunitinib malate) for cases with c-kit/PDGFRA mutations
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