MALIGNANT STROMAL TUMORS OF THE STOMACH

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The purpose of this paper is to expose our experience in malignant stromal tumors of the stomach. METHODOLOGY: we present 1 6 cases of malignant stromal tumors of the stomach, operated on in our hospital from 1977 to 1995. Age, sex, symptoms and signs, standard la boratory tests, diagnostic methods, location, size, infiltration of ot her organs, proliferating activity, treatment and survival rate are an alyzed. Immune staining was performed using the avidin-biotin-peroxida se method, with the S-100 1/8000 and muscular actin 1/50 antiserum. Al l patients underwent surgical treatment, and neither chemotherapy nor radiotherapy were used. RESULTS: Thirteen patients died 5 to 78 months after surgery, and the other 3 are alive and free of disease 74, 48 a nd 38 months after resection, respectively. Five year survival rate wa s 37.5%. The most important prognostic factors were tumor size, infilt ration of neighboring organs and high mitotic index. CONCLUSION: All t he clinical data, survival rates and prognostic factors are similar to other published cases. Surgery is the first step in the treatment of these tumors, as the role of other therapeutic options is not well kno wn yet.