1. ¹Department of General Medical Oncology and Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven Cancer Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2. ²Center for Human Genetics, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Correspondence: Dr M Debiec-Rychter, Center for Human Genetics, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, Leuven B-3000, Belgium. E-mail: Maria.Debiec-Rychter@med.kuleuven.be

Received 19 November 2007; Revised 3 January 2008; Accepted 4 January 2008; Published online 5 February 2008.

Abstract

The management of localised and advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) in terms of histological diagnosis, surgery, imaging, medical treatment and molecular biology has rapidly changed since introduction of imatinib mesylate for molecularly targeted therapy in 2000. In this minireview, we briefly summarise and discuss the current data relevant to the increasing role of molecular characterisation of GISTs in the diagnosis, risk assessment and effective targeted therapy.