Systemic Therapy
Imatinib - Efficacy
Glivec is the standard of care in advanced GIST with proven efficacy and durability. No other drug for GIST has established as proven and durable a track record of efficacy and safety as Glivec.
Glivec is approved for treatment of adult patients with KIT (CD117)-positive unresectable and/or metastatic malignant GIST. At 52-month follow-up, results of the pivotal phase 2 B2222 trial have demonstrated that 84% of patients with advanced GIST had a best response of stable disease or better:1
- 2 patients achieved a complete response (1%)
- 98 patients achieved a partial response (67%)
- 23 patients achieved stable disease (16%)
Median duration of response is over 2 years.
The median overall survival with Glivec is 4.8 years.1,2
The median time to response in patients with advanced GIST who achieved at least a partial response was 12 weeks.1
Time to response (TTR) varies from patient to patient.3
- Median TTR is 12 weeks
- 75% of patients responded by 23 weeks
- TTR may take up to 171 weeks
Duration of survival on Glivec therapy is significantly better than comparative survival estimates based on historical data using conventional chemotherapy before the availability of Glivec (see Figure below).4
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References:
1. Blanke CD, Demetri G, von Mehren M, et al. Long-term follow-up of a phase II randomized trial in advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients (pts) treated with imatinib mesylate [abstract]. J Clin Oncol. 2006;24:526s. Abstract 9528.
2. Demetri G, von Mehren M, Joensuu H, et al. Long-term clinical outcomes of imatinib treatment in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors. J Clin Oncol. Manuscript submitted.
3. Blanke CD, Joensuu H, Demetri GD, et al. Outcome of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients treated with imatinib mesylate: Four-year follow-up of a phase II randomized trial [abstract]. Presented at: 2006 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium; January 26-28, 2006; San Francisco, Calif. Abstract 7, 2006.
4. Blanke C, Joensuu H, Demetri G, et al. Long-term follow up of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients treated with imatinib mesylate [abstract]. Presented at: 2004 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium; January 23, 2004; San Francisco, Calif., 2004
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