Details of GIST

These are soft tissue sarcomas that can be located in any part of the digestive system. Their most common sites are the stomach and the following small intestine. Start in specialized nerve cells in the walls of the digestive system.

• Anemia
• Abdominal pain
• Growth in the abdomen
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Difficulty swallowing

• Upper endoscopy
• Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)
• Fine-needle aspiration biopsy
• Laboratory tests on biopsies
• Contrast-enhanced
• CT scan

Surgery: A large or symptomatic GISTs are surgically removed unless they are too large or they involve too many organs and tissues for surgery. It's often possible to resect GISTs using minimally invasive surgery, which involves inserting a viewing tube (laparoscope) and surgical instruments through small incisions in the abdomen. Targeted Therapy: Targeted drug treatments focus on specific abnormalities present within cancer cells. By blocking these abnormalities, targeted drug treatments can cause cancer cells to die.