Treatment of Metastatic and Recurrent Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Treatment of GISTs that are metastatic (spread to other parts of the body) or recurrent (came back after treatment) may include the following:

• Targeted therapy with imatinib mesylate.
• Targeted therapy with sunitinib, if the tumor begins to grow during imatinib mesylate therapy or if the side effects are too bad.
• Surgery to remove tumors that have been treated with targeted therapy and are shrinking, stable (not changing), or that have slightly increased in size. Targeted therapy may continue after surgery.
• Surgery to remove tumors when there are serious complications, such as bleeding, a hole in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a blocked GI tract, or infection.
• A clinical trial of a new treatment.