Dr. Zalcberg on the Management of Patients With GIST

John Zalcberg, ​PhD, OAM, the Prof & Tony Charlton Chair of Oncology​, head, Cancer Research Program, NHMRC (MRFF) Practitioner Fellow, the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, discusses the management of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor​ (GIST).

​Multiple options are available to treat patients with GIST, Zalcberg says. Although many patients will progress through treatment, agents such as imatinib (Gleevec), ​sunitinib (Sutent), and ​regorafenib (Stivarga) can be given with manageable toxicity. Moreover, ripretinib (Qinlock) is approved as a fourth-line therapy for these patients.

GIST is the most common subtype of sarcoma that presents in the gastrointestinal tract. Research in this space continues to unfold, leading to improved outcomes for patients, Zalcberg concludes.