Novel Approaches Under Evaluation in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

Robin Jones, MD, MRCP, discusses the importance of communication between community and academic oncologists in cancer care.

Gloria Marquina, MD, PhD, as well as the need to consider ongoing clinical trials for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors vs treatment with the current second-line standard-of-care agent sunitinib.

The TKI bezuclastinib plus standard-of-care sunitinib may become the new second-line standard treatment for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor that has progressed on imatinib.

Neeta Somaiah, MD, discusses enrollment criteria for the phase 3 Peak trial in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor and the advantages of this trial’s design.

The combination of bezuclastinib and sunitinib had a tolerable safety profile and demonstrated early signals of clinical activity in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

Combination therapy targeting multiple exons where mutations commonly develop in gastrointestinal stromal tumor may represent a promising treatment approach to increase efficacy when patients develop resistance to therapies such as imatinib.

Drs Jones and Somaiah discuss unmet needs in GIST that the Peak trial seeks to answer; the advantages of the methods and design of this trial; and how the tolerable safety profile of bezuclastinib plus sunitinib supports further research with this combination.