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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. GIST is a sarcoma of the gut wall driven almost always by a KIT or PDGFRA mutation. It was the proof that a pill can control a solid tumour: imatinib turned a median survival of about a year into one of eight years or more, and the mutation now dictates which drug to use. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Complete resection without lymphadenectomy; adjuvant imatinib 3 years for high-risk (SSGXVIII); neoadjuvant imatinib to downsize when organ-sparing matters.
Imatinib 400 mg (800 mg for KIT exon 9); avapritinib for PDGFRA D842V; continue until progression.
Sunitinib (or ripretinib for KIT exon 11 + 17/18 secondary mutations per ctDNA, INSIGHT).
Regorafenib, then ripretinib (INVICTUS); rechallenge or continue TKI beyond progression; clinical trials (bezuclastinib-sunitinib).
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.