Many new cancer drugs are entering clinical practice and clinical trials. Many GIST patients are no longer responding to Gleevec or Sutent and thus are looking for clinical trials. Understanding strategies and grouping these new drugs into classes with other similar drugs may help patients understand some of their choices.
In presentations at the 2010 American Society of Clinical Oncologists conference (ASCO), Dr. Ronald DeMatteo, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Dr. Chris Corless, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), presented new data from the Z9001 adjuvant Gleevec trial. As Dr. DeMatteo noted, the presentations were geared towards answering two questions: Who should get adjuvant Gleevec and how long should they get it for? While the presentations went a long way towards answering who should get adjuvant Gleevec, there appears to be much that we do not know about how long they should get it for. Other ongoing trials may help shed more light on this question.
