Radiotherapy for GIST progressing during or after tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy: A prospective study

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) has been considered radiation-resistant, and radiotherapy is recommended only for palliation of bone metastases in current treatment guidelines. No registered prospective trial has evaluated GIST responsiveness to radiotherapy.

Patients with GIST progressing at intra-abdominal sites or the liver were entered to this prospective Phase II multicenter study (identifier NCT00515931). Metastases were treated with external beam radiotherapy using either conformal 3D planning or intensity modulated radiotherapy and conventional fractionation to a cumulative planning target volume dose of approximately 40 Gy. Systemic therapy was maintained unaltered during the study.

Of the 25 patients entered, 19 were on concomitant tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, most often imatinib. Two (8%) patients achieved partial remission, 20 (80%) had stable target lesion size for ⩾3 months after radiotherapy with a median duration of stabilization of 16 months, and 3 (12%) progressed. The median time to radiotherapy target lesion progression was 4-fold longer than the median time to GIST progression at any site (16 versus 4 months). Radiotherapy was generally well tolerated.

Responses to radiotherapy were infrequent, but most patients had durable stabilization of the target lesions. GIST patients with soft tissue metastases benefit frequently from radiotherapy.