• FDA Works to Speed the Advent of New, More Effective Personalized Medicines

    As part of an agency-wide initiative to speed development of new medical products through the science of pharmacogenomics, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued a final guidance titled “Pharmacogenomic Data Submissions.” Pharmacogenomics allows health care providers to identify sources of an individual’s profile of drug response and predict the best possible treatment option […]

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  • Consensus meeting for the management of gastrointestinal stromal tumors: report of the GIST Consensus Conference of 3/2004, under the auspices of ESMO

    Below is an informal summary of a consensus summary on GIST treatment by an international group of GIST experts. The consensus conference to develop this guideline was sponsored by the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) with a grant from Novartis. A meeting was held in March 2004 among 41 experts from 12 countries from […]

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  • Molecular Testing in Patients with Rare Cancer Predicts Response to Gleevec

    PORTLAND, Ore. – Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) who have a particular genetic mutation are more likely to respond to Gleevec (imatinib) than those without the mutation, according to OHSU study results showcased at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The results confirm previous observations and provide a […]

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  • Personalized Medicine Moves Forward

    PORTLAND, Ore. – Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) who have a particular genetic mutation are more likely to respond to Gleevec (imatinib) than those without the mutation, according to OHSU study results showcased at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The results confirm previous observations and provide a […]

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  • ESMO: Tumor Shrinkage Doesn’t Predict Response to Imatinib Therapy in Patients With Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

    By Charlene Laino VIENNA,AUSTRIA — November 4, 2004 — Lack of progression is the most clinically significant predictor of a patient’s response to imatinib inpatients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST), a new analysis shows. While clinicians traditionally use tumour shrinkage to assess the anticancer activity of a given therapy, the new study suggests that, at […]

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  • Tumor size alone not always best for gauging treatment response

    Tumor size alone not always best for gauging treatment response Both PET and CT useful for judging biologic changes Not only can positron emission tomography (PET) help evaluate treatmentfor gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) by revealing biologicchanges such as how the tumor processes the fuel that makes it grow,but CT can indirectly reveal biologic changes as […]

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  • Pfizer submits application to FDA for Sutent (SU11248)

    NEW YORK, August 10 — Pfizer Inc said today that it has submitted aNew Drug Application for its cancer medicine SU11248 (sunitinibmalate), known as Sutent, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pfizeris seeking FDA approval for Sutent as a treatment for malignantgastrointestinal stromal tumor and metastatic renal cell carcinomaamong patients whose tumors do not […]

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  • ECCO 13 – Sunitinib prolongs survival in GIST patients after imatinib mesylate failure

    Paris, France, Thursday 3 November 2005 – Updated results from a PhaseIII trial presented at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) showthat sunitinib (SU11248) prolongs both progression-free and overallsurvival in patients with progressive metastatic and/or unresectableGIST whose disease has failed to respond to the standard therapy -imatinib mesylate. This study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, international,multicentre, […]

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  • Various Shades of Depression

    "Various shades of depression are often par for the course with cancer, and can affect patients as well as close family members both directly and indirectly. There are various types and degrees of clinical depression, each requiring individual evaluation and appropriate treatment. Depression can also be an understandable and realistic reaction to cancer, and to […]

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  • Anger and Resentment

    Among the many posts to this List, we can sometimes hear the shouts and murmurs of our mingled voices – and some of the human sounds of our GISTmates. As we have come to share among ourselves something of our individual circumstances and personal worries, we have grown closer together – and I believe, at […]

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