Ali Kagan Coskun, MD. GATA Dept. of Surgery
Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are common neoplasms of the digestive tract. They are usually seen in the stomach and small intestine but rarely in the esophagus. Imatinib is a tyrosine-kinase inhibitor. It shows an advantage in treatment of the patients with locally advanced and metastatic GIST. In this review, we aim to evaluate the management and outcome of surgery for esophageal GISTs and the role of imatinib.
Methods: PubMed®/MEDLINE® resources search was undertaken using terms “esophageal, stromal, imatinib ” in English language . Totally 44 articles were identified, although 21 of them under dissected that met our inclusion criteria included.
Results: Apart from two articles, the others were case report and case series. The total number of patients was 71. 70 patients had undergone surgical treatment. Neoadjuvant imatinib was used in 18 patients, reducing mean tumour size (45.1%). In 4 patients there weren’t any change in tumor size but decrease in attenuation were detected with neoadjuvant imatinib. Imatinib was used as adjuvant treatment in 35 patients. Two of the patients who had an adjuvant treatment, had a recurrence in 30 and 31.5 months after surgical resection. %45 of the patients who hadn’t gotten any treatment of imatinib had a reccurrence in 36 months. The average follow-up time in the studies was 29 months.
Conclusion: The use of imatinib for esophageal GISTs before or after the surgery has some advantages for the patients by improving the quality of life and survival.