Gastrointestinal stromal tumour

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

533 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours are the most common mesenchymal neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract and are highly resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Such tumours usually have activating mutations in either KIT (75-80%) or PDGFRA (5-10%), two closely related receptor tyrosine kinases. These mutations lead to ligand-independent activation and signal transduction mediated by constitutively activated KIT or PDGFRA. Targeting these activated proteins with imatinib mesylate, a small-molecule kinase inhibitor, has proven useful in the treatment of recurrent or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumours and is now being tested as an adjuvant or neoadjuvant. However, resistance to imatinib is a growing problem and other targeted therapeutics such as sunitinib are available. The important interplay between the molecular genetics of gastrontestinal stromal tumour and responses to targeted therapeutics serves as a model for the study of targeted therapies in other solid tumours.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1731-1741
Number of pages11
JournalLancet
Volume369
Issue number9574
DOIs
StatePublished - May 19 2007

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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