Survival outcome of local versus radical resection for jejunoileal gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a propensity score-matched population-based analysis

PURPOSE: Survival after local resection (LR) versus radical resection (RR) has been revealed comparable for patients with rectal and duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), but is unknown for jejunoileal (JI) GISTs. This study aimed to compare the long-term survival between patients with JI GISTs who underwent LR and RR, and to find out the prognostic factors for JI GISTs. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with JI GISTs in 1975–2019 were identified from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and grouped according to surgical modality. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the LR and RR groups. Overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were compared in the full and matched cohorts using Kaplan–Meier (KM) analysis. Subgroup sensitivity analyses were also performed. Risk factors associated with DSS were analyzed in multivariate Cox analysis following model selection. RESULTS: 1107 patients diagnosed with JI GISTs were included in the study cohort. After PSM, OS and DSS were comparable in LR and RR groups. Consistently, the two groups had similar DSS in all subgroup analyses. Moreover, multivariate Cox analysis identified lymphadenectomy, older age, larger tumor size, distant metastasis, high and unknown mitotic rate, but not LR, as independent prognostic risk factors for JI GISTs. CONCLUSIONS: We conducted the first population-based comparison between the effect of different surgical modes on survival for patients with JI GISTs. LR can be carried out safely without compromising oncological outcome, and should be considered as a treatment option in selected patients with JI GISTs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00384-023-04548-w.