Clinicopathological features and outcome of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in an Afro-Caribbean population.
OBJECTIVE
A retrospective observational study was done to describe the clinical and pathological profile of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) in Afro-Caribbean patients at a tertiary care referral center over a 5-year period.


RESULTS
Eighteen cases of GIST were identified over the period under review. Male to female ratio was 1.25:1, the mean age was 54.7 years, and abdominal pain (44%) and gastrointestinal bleeding (50%) were the predominant presenting symptoms. The majority of tumors were of gastric location (83%) and spindle cell morphology (66%). C-kit (CD117) positivity was found in 13 of 14 (93%) cases tested. Using current guidelines for assigning risk of aggressive behavior, 44% of tumors were considered high risk. Of the 10 patients with high-risk or intermediate-risk tumors, 4 died, 1 of which had developed resistance to imatinib therapy.


CONCLUSIONS
In this group of patients, GISTs demonstrated predominantly gastric location and spindle cell morphology and a guarded outlook for more aggressive tumors, which is moderated in the long-term by imatinib resistance.
Pathology Department, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica. drbradywest@hotmail.com
Doreen
D
Brady-West
Garfield
G
Blake
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D017691:Caribbean Region; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology; D046152:Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged