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Updated: Sep 26, 2026

Robotic Duodenal Sleeve Resection for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor with Rare Exon 8 KIT Mutation Following Neoadjuvant Imatinib
Published on: April 3, 2026
Pre-progression Surgery Added to Imatinib is Associated with Prolonged Survival in Oligometastatic GIST: A
Mingfeng Liu1, Chunxia Wu1, Rui Feng1
1Key Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, People's Republic of China.
Background:
The role and optimal timing of surgery in oligometastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) remain controversial. We evaluated whether pre‑progression surgery added to first‑line imatinib improves survival in oligometastatic GIST.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed 179 patients with metastatic/recurrent GIST treated with first‑line imatinib. Oligometastasis was defined as ≤ 3 lesions and ≤ 2 organs. Covariate matching (1:1 nearest-neighbor matching on covariates, caliper = 0.05) was performed among oligometastatic patients receiving imatinib alone (Group A) versus imatinib plus pre‑progression surgery (Group B1). Outcomes were compared by using Kaplan‑Meier, log‑rank/Gehan-Breslow-Wilcox, restricted mean survival time (RMST), and Cox regression.
Results:
Among 179 patients, 90 (50.3%) had oligometastasis. In the imatinib‑alone subgroup, oligometastatic and polymetastatic patients had similar survival (PFS: P = 0.693; overall survival [OS]: P = 0.237). After matching (29 pairs), pre-progression surgery was associated with significantly prolonged OS (HR = 0.16, P = 0.007) and provided clinically meaningful PFS benefit (median 104 vs. 29 months; HR = 0.48; log-rank P = 0.041). Restricted mean survival time analysis at 120 months showed additional 32.97 months of PFS (P = 0.007) and 30.88 months of OS (P = 0.003). These findings were robust across all sensitivity analyses.
Conclusions:
Pre-progression surgery added to first-line imatinib was associated with significantly prolonged OS and provides clinically meaningful PFS benefit in oligometastatic GIST. Surgical evaluation should be actively considered in imatinib‑sensitive oligometastatic disease.
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