Cytomorphological Study of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: A Study of 40 Cases

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a heterogenous group of neoplasms. So the aim is to assess the cases of spindle cell and epithelioid cell neoplasms of the GI tract and classify them as GIST and Non GIST morphologically. The study included 40 cases of GISTs. GIST cases were reviewed based on morphology and classified into “Risk of metastasis” categories. The small intestine was the most commonly involved site (46.67%), followed by stomach (30%). Based on the size of the tumor and mitotic activity, the tumors were categorized as high risk (62%), intermediate risk (17.67%), low risk (7.5%), and very low risk (5.04%). There was a spindle cell predominance (70.8%) among all the cases. Epithelioid cells were seen in 23.3% of the cases. Identifying mitotic figures and counting of GIST was associated with problems and were due to uneven distribution of the mitotic figures, variable thickness of the section and presence of inflammatory cells. In spite of the difficulty mitoses is still considered as a good prognostic marker.