Role of Surgery in Patients with Recurrent, Metastatic, or Unresectable Locally Advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Sensitive to Imatinib: A Retrospective Analysis of the Spanish Group for Research on Sarcoma (GEIS)

摘要

Recurrent, metastatic, and locally advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) can be treated successfully with imatinib mesylate. Surgery for residual disease has been suggested for nonrefractory metastatic GISTs to reduce the probability of resistant recurrent clones, although no randomized Phase III trial has been performed to answer the question about its benefit. We carried out an analysis of the outcome of patients with recurrent unresectable locally advanced or metastatic imatinib-sensitive priamary GIST in 14 institutions in Spain. We compared two cohorts: treated or not treated with surgery after partial response or stabilization by imatinib.