Dramatic response of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor to neadjuvant imatinib therapy.docVIP

World Journal of Surgical Oncology BioMedCentral Case report Open Access Dramatic response of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor to neadjuvant imatinib therapy Shohrat Annaberdyev1, Joseph Gibbons1,2 and Jeffrey M Hardacre*1,3 Address: 1Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 2Division of Hematology/Oncology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA and 3Division of Surgical Oncology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Email: Shohrat Annaberdyev - Shohrat@; Joseph Gibbons - joseph.gibbons@UH; Jeffrey M Hardacre* - jeffrey.hardacre@UH * Corresponding author Published: 16 March 2009 Received: 2 December 2008 Accepted: 16 March 2009 World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:30 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-30 This article is available from: /content/7/1/30 ? 2009 Annaberdyev et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common sarcoma of the alimentary tract and are believed to derive from the interstitial Cell of Cajal. Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec?; Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) has revolutionized the treatment of GISTs and is generally used in the metastatic and adjuvant settings. We report the case of a 61-year old man who was treated with neoadjuvant imatinib for a massive gastric GIST with the hope of avoiding a potential multi-visceral resection. Case presentation Given the size and location of the lesion at the time of ini- tial evaluation, resection of the mass would likely have necessitated a multi-visceral resection. Based on recent reports of effective preoperative imatinib therapy, a trial of neoadjuvant imatinib was felt to be