How is GIST treated?
Until now, patients with GIST have had very few treatment options. Surgery has been the main treatment for GIST. However, many GISTs — those that have already spread to another part of the body—cannot be surgically removed. Often, even with surgery, parts of the original GIST remain or GIST returns to another site in the body. In these cases, when surgery really only relieves disease symptoms, it is considered palliative. Traditional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, or radiotherapy, have been ineffective in the treatment of the disease. Because of the lack of effective therapies, and because many GISTs cannot be removed surgically, developing an effective drug therapy was very important. Glivec is the first effective drug approved for treatment of GIST, providing an effective treatment option for GIST patients who previously had no other way to manage their GIST disease.
