Pediatric GIST presenting as anemia

ABSTRACT

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract originating from the myenteric ganglion cells (interstitial cells of Cajal), that are very rare in children and adolescents. The most common clinical manifestation is acute or chronic, overt or occult GI bleeding although these tumors are asymptomatic in 10–30% of patients. We report a case of gastric GIST in a 11-year-old girl presenting with an iron deficiency refractory anemia without gastrointestinal symptoms and stool evidence of GI bleeding that caused a slight diagnostic delay.

KEYWORDS:

• Anemia
• children
• fecal blood
• gastrointestinal stromal tumor
• GIST

Acknowledgement

We thank our collegues from Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori for scientific and clininical collaboration.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors declare that they have no financial conflict of interest with regard to the content of this report.