Do sex differences impact survival in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors?

Men with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) may have worse outcomes although it is not clear if sex is an independent factor, according to a study.

Researchers reviewed the literature with sex as a covariate on GIST survival analyses in addition to analyzing data from the Dutch GIST Registry on the influence of sex on disease-specific survival (DSS).

Of the 118 articles included in the review, 42% demonstrated a sex difference in survival, all favoring female patients. However, the authors noted that there was an overlap of individual patients in the various reported groups.

Amongst the 1425 patients included in the Dutch GIST Registry cohort, 46% were female. Male patients in the cohort had larger tumors and higher mitotic rates compared with female patients, and in males, GIST were more often metastasized at diagnosis and incurable. Only 71.7% of males underwent surgery of the primary tumor compared with 78.9% in females. There were more tumor ruptures in males well (18.2% vs 13.3%).

Male patients had a worse DSS than females although it was not statistically significant when corrected for differences in GIST characteristics.

Reference

IJzerman NS, van Werkhoven E, Mohammadi M, et al. Sex differences in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours: do they exist and does it affect survival? ESMO Open. 2022;7(6):100649. doi: 10.1016/j.esmoop.2022.100649. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36493601.