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Predicting Side Effects
Many patients worry about potential side effects before beginning to take imatinib (Gleevec). Martine van Glabbeke and coauthors published a paper with a math model to predict the probability of developing various side effects based on the patient’s condition prior to taking the drug. Dr. van Glabbeke has written a calculation routine for side effect […]
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GSI Signs Bad Nauheim Declaration
GSI Endorses Bad Nauheim Declaration for GIST Patients’ Right to Access Treatment Representatives from twenty three GIST patient advocacy organizations worldwide gathered in conference June 29 -July 1, 2007 in Bad Nauheim, Germany. They drafted and signed an international declaration to promote the access to state-of-the-art GIST treatment and care for all GIST patients, wherever […]
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GSI Reps Attend ASCO
Sherri Janousky and Carolyn Grobe are attending the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting June 1-5, 2007 in Chicago. Both residents of the greater Chicago area, they are braving long train rides, sore feet, and heavy loads of handouts to get the GIST treatment news and research being presented at the huge meeting. Pictured here […]
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Do Not Interrupt Gleevec
A French trial investigating the results of interrupting Gleevec in metastatic GIST patients has been published (click for abstract). Results indicate imatinib treatment should not be interrupted to avoid reactivation of metastases.
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Free-access GIST reviews
An entire issue of the journal Clinical Colorectal Cancer devoted to GIST is available free-access online. Entitled "Emerging Trends in the Management of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors," this November 2006 issue is edited by Margaret von Mehren, MD. Physicians can obtain continuing medical education units by studying the five included papers. This project was funded by […]
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Sutent and Thyroid Function
According to data for patients in the Phase I/II trial of sunitinib (Sutent), 36% developed hypothyroidism during treatment with sunitinib, and the incidence of hypothyroidism increased with duration of treatment. These findings were published in November 2006 by Desai et al in the Annals of Internal Medicine (click for abstract). Desai et al report that […]
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GIST Summit webcasts
The Third GIST Global Opinion Leader Summit meeting, “Multi-modality Approaches to Treating Patients with GIST” was held in Prague on October 27-29, 2006, and was supported by an unrestricted grant from Novartis Oncology. The co-chairs for the meeting were Jean-Yves Blay, MD PhD and Peter Reichardt, MD PhD, both well-known GIST experts. Novartis has removed […]
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Cardiotoxicity from imatinib?
Could imatinib (Gleevec) affect heart function? A new paper released electronically (prior to print publication) suggests that a small percent of patients taking imatinib may experience reduced cardiac function. Specifically, some patients may experince reduced left ventricular function of the heart, reducing its pumping capacity. Dr. Thomas Force, the corresponding author of the paper, discussed […]
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Slide presentation from Dr. Peter Reichardt
Dr. Peter Reichardt has generously made available the slides he used at his June 2005 presentation at the meeting "New Horizons in Treating Cancer: Third International Conference for Organizations Representing People with CML or GIST," held in Dublin, Ireland. This presentation summarizes the consensus about GIST diagnosis and treatment from the European Society of Medical […]
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Managing Sutent side effects
A practical paper written by oncology nurse Laura S. Wood, RN MSN OCN has been published online with free access by the journal Community Oncology. The paper, which covers side effects from sunitinib and sorafenib (in trials for GIST), deals with fatigue, hypertension, diarrhea, mucositis, skin conditions, and hair changes. Patients taking thes drugs or […]
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