For patients who received neoadjuvant Imatinib for initially unresectable GIST tumours, do you routinely prescribe adjuvant therapy or rely on preoperative staging and preoperative mitotic index?
NCCN suggests to consider continuation of imatinib from some single/multi institution non-randomized trials for ~2 years, but does not suggest what factors to consider in making this decision.
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I agree with Dr Groisberg. Another way to look at it is that if the patient would have qualified by preoperative risk factors, I wouldn’t “downgrade” that by the improved risk tumor that comes out. Sometimes you can’t be sure ahead of time- for example I just saw a patient wi...