Primary gastrointestinal sarcomas

Gastrointestinal (GI) sarcomas are uncommon tumors with the majority of pre vious studies performed over long time intervals. The purpose of this revie w is to analyze our single-institution experience with primary GI sarcomas. Between January 1990 and June 1998, 27 adult patients with primary GI sarc omas were identified in the tumor registry at the University Hospital, Scho ol of Medicine of University of Alabama at Birmingham and retrospectively r eviewed. Patient, tumor, and treatment factors as well as expression of p53 and Ki-67 were analyzed with overall survival as the main outcome variable . Statistical analysis was performed by log rank test and Cox regression. S ignificance was defined as P < 0.05. Median age was 55 years (range 36-80 y ears). The stomach was the most common site of presentation (59%) followed by small bowel (29%). The average tumor size was 15 cm (range 2-46 cm). A c omplete resection was performed in 22 patients (81.5%). Fifteen tumors were classified as low grade (55.5%). Actuarial 3-year survival was 43 per cent with a median follow-up of 16 months. Overexpression of p53 and Ki-67 corr elated with a trend to decreased survival but it did not reach statistical significance. Multivariate analysis found incomplete resection (P = 0.00001 ) and high grade (P = 0.003) to be significant negative prognostic factors. We conclude that GI sarcomas tend to be large tumors with most arising in the stomach and proximal GI tract. Complete surgical resection is associate d with prolonged survival and despite the large size of these tumors should be attempted whenever possible.