Cure Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma International (iCureASPS)

Imatinib is a poster drug in a class of the TKI drugs - the first one that was found to be very active in GIST sarcoma and DFSP sarcoma and now is a standard of care in these previously incurable sarcomas. The question here is - how long the patient has to be on that drug? The complete responses are not rare in GIST with Imatinib but discontinuation often cases the progression.

Imatinib rechallenge in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/conten ... 2.abstract

Discontinuation of imatinib in responding patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) is associated with a high risk of progression and is therefore not recommended. Although rechallenge is a strategy for treating patients who relapse after stopping imatinib, suboptimal tumor response indicates that continuous kinase suppression is necessary to achieve the best clinical outcome. Three–year adjuvant imatinib is recommended for patients with resected ‘high–risk’ GIST; however, a longer duration may provide additional benefits.

Dear Olga,
Thank you for sharing this very important and relevant information. Many people have asked us if we have considered taking Brittany off of Cediranib since she has now had 34 months of continued disease stability since beginning her Cediranib Clinical Trial in April 2009. Although we would like to give Brittany's body a break from the debilitating side effects of Cediranib, as long as she is having a successful response to the medication, discontinuing the Cediranib for even a brief period is not a consideration at this time for the very reasons given in this abstract about the high risk of disease progression when a TKI drug is discontinued in responding patients. In discussing this matter with Dr. Sawyer, Brittany's extremely knowledgeable Clinical Trial oncologist, he strongly agrees that discontinuation of the Cediranib would be a risk not worth taking since although based on her scans Brittany may be macroscopically tumor free, he thinks that she is unfortunately probably not microscopically free of ASPS. Hopefully someday very soon a treatment will be found which is a permanent cure that will completely destroy this insidious disease, but until then, and as long as Brittany is having disease stability on Cediranib and able to tolerate the side effects, she will continue to take the drug.
With deepepst gratitude and appreciation for the shared information, special caring thoughts, and continued Hope,
Bonni