title: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors characteristics in Croatian Northern Adriatic region.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) have fairly recently been identified as a new type of tumor, thanks to advances in immunohistochemistry. Aim of our work was to investigate and describe GISTs in our hospital in a 10-year period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Records of patients treated for GIST were analyzed and data describing demographics, comorbidities, primary tumor site, initial symptoms, immunohistochemical characteristics, method of detection and grade of malignancy were shown for each patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 31 patients were analyzed. There was 54.8% of women and 46.7% of men with GIST. The mean age was 61.9±12.8 years. Predominant symptoms and signs were abdominal pain and anemia, bloody stool or melena, even though a significant portion of patients did not have any, or only mild symptoms. Stomach was the most frequent location of the tumor. CD117 was positive in all but two biopsy specimens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed approximately the same incidence of GISTs as in other published data. However, we reported less asymptomatic cases at the time of diagnosis. Also, we reported more women diagnosed with GIST in our population. Even though many tumors were diagnosed by other methods, immunohistochemistry remains the definitive diagnostic method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Center, Rijeka, Croatia. vanja.giljaca@ri.t-com.hr
authors.forename: Vanja
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giljača
authors.forename: Dragana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grohovac
authors.forename: Dražen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kovač
authors.forename: Davor
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Štimac
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001706:Biopsy; D015897:Comorbidity; D017523:Croatia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D046152:Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008551:Melena / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000032:analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit