GIST expresses mutant protein tyrosine kinase KIT, which results in constitutive activa tion of the KIT receptor tyrosine kinase. Surgical operation, as the first line treatment, has been the most effective method for the resectable GIST. Most of the chemotherapy agents and radiation have failed to treat GIST. About 80% dilution calculator of the patients have the tumor recurrence or and metastasis after the radical operation, and the most common site of the metastasis is the liver. Before the imatinib mesylate was used, another resection had to be performed to remove the relapsed tumor when GIST recurred after the Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries first radical surgery. Unfortunately, the outcome was still rather poor, and the patients could only achieve a median survival of about 15 months even if they had undergone another surgical operation.

Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries If the relapsed tumor could not be removed, the patient would have a much worse progno sis. Imatinib mesylate, a small molecule orally bioavailable drug, is able to inhibit KIT. Imatinib mesylate has proved to be the most active agent for advanced GIST. A long term follow up phase II study on the imatinib mesy late treatment for the patients with advanced GIST has revealed a response rate of 68% and a median overall sur vival time of 58 months. A recent study has Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries also proved the advantages of the adjuvant treatment with imatinib mesylate in recurrent free survival. Not a few patients with recurrent GIST after surgery have used imatinib mesylate as a salvage therapy, but no sufficient data about those patients are available. More than half of the recurrent GIST cases have liver metastasis.

Liver involvement was always considered as a bad prognostic factor in solid tumors, but whether liver metastasis could influence the outcome of the recurrent GIST Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries treated with imatinib mesylate has not been clear yet. The present study was focused on whether imatinib mesylate could prolong the survival of the patients who had the recurrent GIST after Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries the first radical operation and whether the liver metastasis could influence the effectiveness of ima tinib mesylate treatment. In order to confirm the final outcome, we performed a long term follow up. Methods Patients From March 2003 to June 2006, 52 patients with patho logically confirmed GIST were treated with imatinib mesylate in Cancer Cen ter of West China Hospital. This program was supported by China Charity Federation.

Each patient had signed a writing informed consent form before the ima http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Vorinostat-saha.html tinib mesylate treatment. Clinical data were gathered prospectively from 42 patients who had the recurrent GIST after the prior radical resection. No adjuvant che motherapy, radiation or targeted therapy had been used for the patients. The median interval from the first sur gery to the later tumor progression was 15. 5 months.