Treatment of Unresectable Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Unresectable GISTs cannot be completely removed by surgery because they are too large or in a place where there would be too much damage to nearby organs if the tumor is removed. Treatment is usually a clinical trial of targeted therapy with imatinib mesylate to shrink the tumor, followed by surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.