Because imatinib (Gleevec) and sunitinib (Sutent) do not kill all GIST cancer cells, new treatment ideas under development include:

• combination trials of imatinib or sunitinib plus other drugs
• imatinib plus surgery in specified sequences 
• heat shock protein inhibitors
• other tyrosine kinase inhibitors including sorafenib, nilotinib, dasatinib, etc.
• inhibitors of downstream pathways such as PI3K, mTOR, MAPK
• cell cycle  inhibitors
• proteasome inhibitors

A number of consensus documents summarizing expert opinion about GIST treatment are available, including those listed below.

NCCN Task Force Report: Optimal Management of Patients with GIST -- Update of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines.  This is a long (40-page pdf) and detailed guidelines booklet written by a panel of experts.  It contains plenty of useful information to guide oncologists in treatment of GIST, plus details such as drug interactions and side effects of special concern to patients.

NCCN Soft Tissue Sarcoma Guidelines   This document, updated at least annually, includes flow charts for GIST diagnosis  and treatment.

European Society for Medical Oncology  consensus guidelines published  by Blay et al, 2005 (click here for a  summary on our site as well as summary  slides by Dr. Reichardt on our site).

French National Federation of Cancer Centers consensus guidelines written in French (Recommandations pour la prise en charge des tumeurs stromales gastro-intestinales (GIST)

Canadian Advisory Committee on GIST statement Gastrointestinal stromal tumours: Consensus statement on diagnosis and treatment (Blackstein et al, 2006).