DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2018.v06i12.021

Pages: 1074-1076

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) are the commonest mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. We aim to compare the differences in epidemiology, presentation and tumor characteristics of GISTs in the geographically and culturally diverse East and West Malaysian population. A 7-year retrospective review of patients diagnosed with GISTs from Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar Seremban and Hospital Umum Sarawak, both being tertiary referral centres of the West and East Malaysia respectively was performed. 38 patients were diagnosed with GISTs within this period. There was a male preponderance in the West with 58.3% being Malays as compared to the East with a female predominance and a Chinese majority of 46.2%. However, in both regions, the mean age was similar (57years) and bleeding was the commonest presentation. GISTs were mostly gastric in origin but a quarter of it arose from the oesophagus, small bowel, mesentery and retroperitoneum. Tumors were greater than 5cm, 58.3% (West) and 69.2% (East) with mean size of 5.53cm and 7.21cm. 56% of GISTs had mitotic counts of more than 5 per 50 high power field (hpf) in East Malaysia as compared to 72% in West Malaysia. Almost half of the patients bi-regionally were stratified as high risk as per Fletcher’s Criteria. In conclusion, GISTs have no variation in demographics between the East and West of Malaysia except gender and ethnicity predominance. However, extragastric GISTs were found more in the West.