Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2015; 21(18): 5630-5634
Published online May 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i18.5630
Diagnosis and surgical treatment of esophageal gastrointestinal stromal tumors
Fang-Biao Zhang, Hong-Can Shi, Yu-Sheng Shu, Wei-Ping Shi, Shi-Chun Lu, Xiang-Yan Zhang, Shao-Song Tu
Fang-Biao Zhang, Xiang-Yan Zhang, Shao-Song Tu, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Lishui Center Hospital, Lishui 323000, Zhejiang Province, China
Hong-Can Shi, Yu-Sheng Shu, Wei-Ping Shi, Shi-Chun Lu, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Clinical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang FB collected and analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Shi HC, Shu YS, Shi WP and Lu SC performed the surgery; Shi HC provided supervision and revised the manuscript; Zhang XY and Tu SS provided analytical oversight; all authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Clinical College, Yangzhou University Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest: All authors have no conflicts of interest in this article.
Data sharing: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at shihongcan9@163.com.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hong-Can Shi, MD, PhD, Professor, Chief, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Clinical College, Yangzhou University, 11 Huaihai Road, Yangzhou 225001, Jiangsu Province, China. shihongcan9@163.com
Telephone: +86-514-87978804
Received: November 30, 2014
Peer-review started: December 1, 2014
First decision: December 26, 2014
Revised: January 21, 2015
Accepted: February 12, 2015
Article in press: May 4, 2015
Published online: May 14, 2015
Processing time: 168 Days and 18.4 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To retrospectively evaluate our experience with the diagnosis and surgical resection of esophageal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs).

METHODS: Between January 2003 and August 2014, five esophageal GIST cases were admitted to our hospital. In this study, the hospital records, surgery outcomes, tumor recurrence and survival of these patients were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 45.6 years (range: 12-62 years). Three patients presented with dysphagia, and one patient presented with chest discomfort. The remaining patient was asymptomatic. Four patients were diagnosed with esophageal GISTs by a preoperative endoscopic biopsy. Three patients underwent esophagectomy, and two patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. The mean operating time was 116 min (range: 95-148 min), and the mean blood loss was 176 mL (range: 30-300 mL). All tumors were completely resected. The mean length of postoperative hospital stay was 8.4 d (range: 6-12 d). All patients recovered and were discharged successfully. The median postoperative follow-up duration was 48 mo (range: 29-72 mo). One patient was diagnosed with recurrence, one patient was lost to follow-up, and three patients were asymptomatic and are currently being managed with close radiologic and clinical follow-up.

CONCLUSION: Surgery is the standard, effective and successful treatment for esophageal GISTs. Long-term follow-up is required to monitor recurrence and metastasis.

Keywords: Esophagus; Gastrointestinal stromal tumors; Recurrence

Core tip: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) commonly occur in the stomach and small intestine but are less frequent in the esophagus. To our knowledge, there are few detailed reports concerning the diagnosis and surgical treatment of esophageal GISTs. The main purpose of the present study was to present our experience with the diagnosis and surgical resection of esophageal GISTs.