Investigation of unfavorable prognostic factors for survival in Chinese patients with gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Background: Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) was very rare in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Most GISTs were asymptomatic at early stage. Therefore, it was of great significance to explore the prognostic factors of patients with GIST. This investigation aimed to assess the unfavorable prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in 106 Chinese patients with GISTs.

Methods: A total of 106 Chinese patients, including 68 women and 38 men, with confirmed gastric GIST treated at the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University in China from 2012 to 2018 were included. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression models were applied to evaluate the unfavorable prognostic risk factors for survival.

Results: Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that blood type A was significantly related to poor OS (P=0.01), and tumor invasion, higher Ki-67 index, synchronous gastric cancer (GC), and tumor necrosis were significantly associated with poor DFS (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis further demonstrated that blood type A was a significant independent prognostic factor with both OS and DFS (both P<0.05). Synchronous GC and age ≥60 years were also significant independent prognostic factor for DFS (both P<0.05).

Conclusions: Blood type A, age ≥60 years, and synchronous GC were unfavorable prognostic factors for survival in Chinese patients with gastric GISTs. The mechanism underlying the prognostic role of these factors warrants further investigation.