China News Service, Guangzhou, June 3 (Cai Minjie) Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are the most common mesenchymal tumors in the gastrointestinal tract. The number of cases in China is about 20,000 to 30,000 cases each year. At present, targeted therapy is the main treatment for unresectable or recurrent metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Zhou Zhiwei, director of the Department of Gastric Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, recently introduced in Guangzhou that with the in-depth study of the disease mechanism of gastrointestinal stromal tumors, it was found that targeted therapy is effective for gastrointestinal stromal tumors, which triggered clinicians to treat this rare Kind of attention.
"There are no symptoms in the early stage, and there will be some clinical manifestations in the middle and late stages, including abdominal mass, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding and intestinal obstruction." Zhou Zhiwei said that the clinical symptoms of gastrointestinal stromal tumors are not specific, resulting in a high rate of misdiagnosis .
"In the early stage of the disease or when the tumor is less than 2 to 3 cm, it can be cured; even if the tumor is more than 5 cm, by the middle of the disease, most of the adjuvant treatments by surgery and postoperative targeted drugs The patient can also be cured; only when it moves to a distant place and develops into an advanced stage, the treatment effect is unpredictable." Zhou Zhiwei said.
For localized and resectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors, surgical resection is the preferred treatment method, while recurrent and metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors are mainly based on molecular targeted therapy.
At present, targeted therapy is the main treatment method for unresectable or recurrent metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors, but patients will gradually develop tumor resistance as the treatment time increases.
Qiu Haibo, deputy chief physician of the Department of Gastric Surgery, Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that the current difficulty in the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors is drug resistance caused by secondary mutations in genes. In May this year, the US Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of a new application for repatinib, and repatinib became the first approved fourth-line treatment for gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
In addition, with the rapid progress of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the field of diagnosis, treatment and research in recent years, the Expert Committee of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology has discussed some key contents and plans to launch "China" in June this year Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (2020 edition). (Finish)