The Life Raft Group is pleased to announce the release of the sixth issue of The GIST Cancer Journal, the official journal of the Life Raft Group and the first academic journal devoted solely to GIST. The journal is intended to serve as a comprehensive and authoritative resource of scientifically valid information for physicians and allied health care professionals regarding advances in the diagnosis and treatment of GIST. Editorial content focuses on the impact of translational research in oncology and gastroenterology relating specifically to GIST. As the official medical journal of the Life Raft Group, it also provides a forum for GIST patient advocacy. It is published quarterly.

In this issue of the GIST Cancer Journal

The GIST Cancer Journal volume 2 Issue 2

Articles in this month’s issue highlight a new population-based study between GIST and other cancers, current clinical trials for new therapeutic agents, and selected abstracts from ASCO.

Dr. Jonathan Trent, editor of the GIST Cancer Journal, discusses in his editor’s memo new information presented at the 2015 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which offers an intriguing and revealing portrait of how the epidemiology of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is evolving.

The article by Jason K. Sicklick, MD, FACS,  talks about a new population- based study that uses modern data collection resources to suss out significant temporal and disease associations between GIST and other cancers. Read more about Population-Based Study Provides Insight into GIST Epidemiology and Risk of Additional Cancers

Tracking the Trials and Progress of Drugs in the Pipeline: New Directions in Novel Treatments and Identification of Pathways by Anette Duensing, MD, discusses current clinical trials for new therapeutic agents in GIST, providing a glimpse of how the landscape of treatment is evolving.

View selected abstracts from this year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

About the image

Illustration of a DNA molecule methylated at the two center cytosines with implications for SDH-deficient GIST. Hypermethylation indicates a gene that is over-methylated and is not able to be expressed normally. SDHC is part of the SDH complex which requires normal expression of all components in order for the complex to function. This means that the SDH complex is not able to function normally in these patients. A disrupted SDH complex leads to disrupted cell metabolism and to cell growth and blood vessel growth and has been identified as a cause of tumorgenesis in a number of cancers. Artwork by Christoph Bock (Max Planck Institute for Informatics).