Inpatient burden of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the United States.

The purpose of this study was to determine the inpatient burden among patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). The study assessed hospitalization rates of GISTs and compared hospital characteristics among patients with and without GISTs. Further, predictors of total charges and mortality among patients with GISTs were identified.The 2009 Healthcare Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) database was analyzed for this study. Inpatient burden among patients with GISTs (cases) was compared to that among patients without GISTs or any diagnosis of cancer (controls). Linear regression was used to determine the factors predicting total charges, and logistic regression was used to determine predictors of mortality. Analyses were performed using SAS version 9.2.In 2009, there were 14,562 hospitalizations among patients with GISTs at a rate of 44/100,000 admissions. Hospitalization rates among patients with GISTs varied by patient-, hospital-, and discharge-level characteristics. Patients with GISTs had longer length of stay (LOS), total charges, and mortality rate as compared to the control group. Total charges for hospitalizations among patients with GISTs varied by household income, hospital location and region, LOS, and number of diagnoses on record, respectively. When examining the predictors of mortality, household income, hospital region, and number of diagnoses on record emerged significant.By examining the inpatient burden among patients with GISTs, this study fills a critical gap in this area of research. Future studies could merge medical services claims data with cancer registry data to study in-depth the humanistic and economic burden associated with GISTs.