Laura Samantha Kukucka, born March 8, 1977, died Tuesday December 1, 2009 peacefully ending her battle with cancer. She was born in Oberlin, OH and graduated from Olentangy High School. She received her B.A. in communication from The Ohio State University.
In a parallel phase II adjuvant trial of imatinib alone in high-risk GIST patients (tumors greater than 10 cm) researchers found a similar response pattern over the one year of the trial treatment period. They also found that when adjuvant treatment was stopped there was a significant increase in the rate of recurrence beginning six months after treatment was discontinued.
The LRG uses registry & “GISTory” to help patients in a new way. Many of you who participate in the Life Raft Group’s Patient Registry may have received our monthly plea to help us update our [...]
The Sixth Annual New York City Poker Tournament, held on November 19 at the Midtown Loft and hosted by Board President Jerry Cudzil, was a tremendous success thanks to all of our supporters who came [...]
This presentation at the 2009 Connective Tissue Oncology Society meeting by Dr. Jonathan Trent offered several new observations for patients on imatinib. One hundred forty-two GIST patients underwent therapeutic drug monitoring from May 2008 to September 2009 at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Imatinib blood plasma levels were measured and minimum concentration or trough levels were calculated. Patient response was also tracked as part of this retrospective, observational study, which included both those with advanced GIST and those receiving adjuvant imatinib (approx. 20%).
Plans for Life Fest 2010, and especially the gala event Friday night, GIST 2010: A Decade of Difference, are moving quite rapidly here. Below are a few additions to the weekend. • Humanitarian of the Decade: The last [...]
The vast majority of GISTs arising in adult patients have activating mutations of the KIT or PDGFRA genes (80- 90%). GISTs lacking activating KIT or PDGFRA mutations are commonly referred to as wild-type GIST. Despite intensive research, the molecular abnormalities giving rise to wild-type GISTs remain unknown. Compared to the common exon 11-mutant GISTs, wild-type GISTs have lower rates of objective response to imatinib. In addition, the progression free and overall survival of patients with wild-type GIST is reduced compared to that of patients with KIT exon 11-mutant GIST. In pediatric GIST, the kinase mutational frequency is reversed, with more than 90 percent of pediatric GIST having a wild-type genotype. Notably, the effectiveness of imatinib against wildtype pediatric GIST is often reduced compared with its activity against adult wild-type GIST.
