Retrospective study of the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in Chinese patients

The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) in mainland China. We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological characteristics and survival data of 149 patients with GISTs admitted to Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from July 2011 to October 2017. The following details were collected from all patients: sex, age, symptoms, preoperative examination, pathology, surgical procedures, and follow-up data. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were used to assess survival outcomes. The Kaplan-Meier method was performed to draw survival curves and calculate the survival rate. The log-rank test was performed for univariate analysis, and the significant factors were included in multivariate analysis using a Cox proportional hazards model to determine prognostic factors. The 5-year RFS rate was 78.5 % and 5-year OS rate was 83.2 %. The univariate analysis showed that the following prognostic factors could significantly predict 5-year RFS and OS: tumor size, initial status, modified NIH classification, mitotic index, CD117 expression, Ki67 index, and surgical procedure (P < 0.05). The multivariate analysis showed that mitotic index, CD117, and Ki67 index were independent prognostic factors associated with 5-year RFS and 5-year OS. This study provides a reference for the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of patients with GISTs in mainland China, and the results suggest that focusing on immunohistochemical markers in clinical practice may be more reliable for the prediction of clinical outcomes.