A whole population study of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Due to problems with identification and an incomplete understanding on the gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) before 2001, there has been a lack of comprehensive long-term population-based studies on GIST epidemiology at present date. We used data from the online registry of Czech and Slovak GIST patients (http://gist.registry.cz/), which has been compiled and maintained since 2006 and involves patients diagnosed from the year 2000. 278 patients were included in this study. Most of the tumors fell into the high-risk category (58.7%), followed by the intermediate (21.4%), low (16.6%) and very low (3.3%) categories. Locations other than the small intestine and stomach had significantly higher contribution of high-risk tumors. The median time of overall survival was 93.2 months, 5-year relative survival was 78.3% overall, 71.9% for patients with high-risk tumors, 91.1% for intermediate patients, and 91.9% for patients from the low- and very low-risk category. The annual crude incidence between the years 2001-2005 was 0.52 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The annual European ASR and World ASR were 0.44 and 0.31 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Presented data generally correspond to the whole-population studies recently published, including actual data on epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and survival of patients. The registry helps in improving GIST diagnostics, knowledge about the properties and behaviour of tumors, communication among physicians, and, last but not least, therapeutical options and results.