The malignancy among gastric submucosal tumor

The origin and characteristics of most submucosal tumors (SMTs) cannot easily be confirmed by gastrointestinal endoscopy or other radiological examinations. Excluding GISTs, for those other gastric SMTs, most of which are deemed benign, the necessity and timing of intervention has been ignored. Thus, the malignancy of gastric SMTs still remains unknown. In order to summarize the malignancy of these gastric SMTs, we reviewed literatures and analyzed cases of gastric SMTs including heterotopic pancreas, leiomyoma, schwannoma, glomus tumor, hemangioendothelioma, granular cell tumor (GCT), lipoma, hemangiopericytoma, lymphangioma and neurofibroma. In these literatures, there are cases of malignancy among heterotopic pancreas, leiomyoma, schwannoma, glomus tumor, hemangioendothelioma and GCT. As a result, it suggests that although most of gastric SMTs are considered benign, there are still possibilities of malignancy, which requires our attention, even active intervention and long-term follow-up.