AIM:To report preliminary results of the efficacy and safety of sunitinib in the management of Taiwanese gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) patients facing imatinib mesylate (IM) intolerance or failure.METHODS:Between 2001 and May 2010,199 Taiwanese patients with metastatic GIST were treated at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.Among them,23 (11.6%) patients receiving sunitinib were investigated.RESULTS:Sixteen male and 7 female patients with a median age of 59 years (range:24-83 years) received sunitinib.Twenty-two GIST patients changed to sunitinib because of IM failure and 1 because of intolerance.The median duration of sunitinib administration was 6.0 mo (range:2-29 mo).The clinical benefit was 65.2% [2 complete response (CR),4 partial response (PR),and 9 stationary disease (SD);15/23].In 12 patients harboring mutations of the kit gene at exon 11,the clinical benefit rate (CR,PR,and SD) was 75.0% and 6 patients with tumors containing kit exon 9 mutations had a clinical benefit of 50.0% (not significant,P=0.344).The progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) did not differ between patients whose GISTs had wild type,KIT exon 9,or KIT exon 11 mutations.Hand-foot syndrome was the most common cause of grade Ⅲ adverse effect (26.1%),followed by anemia (17.4%),and neutropenia (13.0%).During the median 7.5-mo follow-up after sunitinib use,the median PFS and OS of these 23 GIST patients after sunitinib treatment were 8.4 and 14.1 mo,respectively.CONCLUSION:Sunitinib appears to be an effective treatment for Taiwanese with IM-resistant/intolerant GISTs and induced a sustained clinical benefit in more than 50% of Taiwanese advanced GIST patients.
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