{"entity":{"id":"george-demetri","kind":"person","name":"George D. Demetri","aka":[],"tldr":"Led the imatinib trial in GIST that proved a targeted drug could melt away a solid tumour, and every GIST kinase inhibitor since.","summary":"George Demetri led the 2002 trial showing imatinib produces responses in more than half of patients with KIT-positive metastatic GIST, the first proof that a kinase inhibitor could transform a solid tumour and a founding result for precision oncology. He then led the pivotal trials of sunitinib, regorafenib and ripretinib in GIST and of trabectedin and eribulin in soft-tissue sarcoma. He co-directs the Ludwig Center at Harvard.","asOf":"2026-09-10","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_D._Demetri","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Demetri%20GD%5BAuthor%5D%20GIST%20imatinib"}],"tags":["gist","sarcoma","targeted-therapy"],"related":[],"cancers":["gist","sarcoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":["kinase-inhibitors"],"targets":["kit"],"drugs":["imatinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":["dana-farber"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-druker-imatinib-phase1-nejm-2001"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Director, Sarcoma Center and Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Professor, Harvard Medical School","institutionId":"dana-farber","specialisms":["Gastrointestinal stromal tumour","Sarcoma","Kinase inhibitors","Early drug development"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Demetri%20GD%5BAuthor%5D%20GIST%20imatinib"}],"papers":[{"title":"Efficacy and safety of imatinib mesylate in advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors","journal":"NEJM","year":2002,"doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa020461"},{"title":"Efficacy and safety of sunitinib in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumour after failure of imatinib: a randomised controlled trial","journal":"Lancet","year":2006,"doi":"10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69446-4"},{"title":"First imatinib trial: a pill that switched off the enzyme driving chronic myeloid leukaemia","journal":"New England Journal of Medicine","year":2001,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM200104053441401","doi":"10.1056/NEJM200104053441401"},{"title":"GRID: regorafenib for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumours after failure of imatinib and sunitinib","journal":"The Lancet","year":2013,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61857-1","doi":"10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61857-1"}],"orcid":"0000-0002-0045-4809"},"route":"/people/george-demetri/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"gist","kind":"cancer","name":"Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST)","route":"/cancers/gist/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}],"technology":[{"id":"kinase-inhibitors","kind":"technology","name":"Small-molecule kinase inhibitors","route":"/technologies/kinase-inhibitors/"}],"target":[{"id":"kit","kind":"target","name":"KIT","route":"/targets/kit/"}],"drug":[{"id":"imatinib","kind":"drug","name":"Imatinib","route":"/drugs/imatinib/"}],"institution":[{"id":"dana-farber","kind":"institution","name":"Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/dana-farber/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-druker-imatinib-phase1-nejm-2001","kind":"paper","name":"First imatinib trial: a pill that switched off the enzyme driving chronic myeloid leukaemia","route":"/key-papers/paper-druker-imatinib-phase1-nejm-2001/"}],"trial":[{"id":"grid","kind":"trial","name":"GRID","route":"/trials/grid/"}]}}