Targeted therapy combined with immunotherapy in gastrointestinal stromal tumor: a new era of hope and challenges

Abstract

New immunotherapy represented by immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy and chimeric antigen receptor T-Cell immunotherapy (CAR-T) has already become hot trend in the treatment of malignant tumors. In gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), with notable tumor-infiltrating immune cells existing in GIST tissues and immunological effects reported in imatinib mesylate (IM) treatment, the clinicians and researchers started to realize the possibilities of immunotherapy in GIST. Recent studies reported that PD-1/PD-L1 or CTLA-4 blockade may enhance the T-cell activity and anti-tumor effect of targeted therapy, which can be applied in advanced GIST, and anti-KIT CAR T-cells indicated a new immunotherapeutic targeted strategy for GIST patients with TKI resistance. All the immunotherapies in GIST mentioned above are frontline researches but their efficacies still need more evidence from clinical trials to verify.