How long can you live with intestinal stromal tumors?

Intestinal stromal tumor is a disease with a relatively high incidence rate. It can cause patients to experience some intestinal symptoms, and the mainstream also has many characteristics. First of all, the most common one is that it needs to be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, early diagnosis, and reasonable control. Generally, it will not recur after surgery, so everyone can rest assured in this regard.

As a relatively rare tumor, the incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in Shanghai is about 23 per 1 million, accounting for 1% to 4% of gastrointestinal tumors. The general age of onset is between 55 and 60 years old. About 60% to 70% of GISTs develop in the stomach, 20% to 30% develop in the small intestine, and a smaller percentage develop in the esophagus, colon, or rectum.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are not the same as stomach cancer or intestinal cancer. Cancer refers to a malignant tumor that occurs in the epithelium and is characterized by invasive growth and easy recurrence and metastasis. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors occur in the mesenchymal tissue of the gastrointestinal tract. They are not as locally invasive as cancer and are less likely to metastasize through the blood rather than through lymph nodes.

This means that this tumor has three major characteristics:

1. It is insensitive to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Surgical resection is the main treatment of choice, and molecular targeted drugs can also be used for adjuvant treatment.

2. Relapse is easy after surgery. Although low-risk gastrointestinal stromal tumors have a high 5-year survival rate after complete resection, the postoperative recurrence and metastasis rate is as high as 40% to 90% as the risk level increases. Once recurred or metastasized, the survival time is only 10 to 20 months. The vast majority of patients relapse within two years of the first resection, and some even relapse after 10 years.

3. Early diagnosis is difficult. Because the symptoms are not obvious and lack specificity, gastrointestinal stromal tumors are often difficult to detect early, especially tumors less than two centimeters in diameter may not have any symptoms. The common early manifestations of most patients are gastrointestinal bleeding, abdominal pain, abdominal mass, and anemia. Some patients may experience symptoms of intestinal obstruction. Many patients accidentally discover the disease during tumor screening, physical examination or other surgery.

Imaging examinations are of great significance for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Currently, the diagnosis mainly relies on fiber endoscopy, endoscopic ultrasound, B-ultrasound and CT.

A special reminder: once gastrointestinal bleeding occurs, including vomiting blood, bloody stools or black stools, as well as abdominal masses, frequent unexplained abdominal pain or anemia that is difficult to explain by other reasons, you should go to a regular hospital in time and undergo an ultrasonic endoscopic examination if necessary. If no lesions are found during gastroscopy, it is best to perform a small enteroscopy to avoid missed diagnosis.