Treatment of GIST and neuroendocrine GI tumors

1. Big picture

This topic contains two different surgical-oncology entities that are often confused:

1. GIST — gastrointestinal stromal tumor A mesenchymal tumour of the gastrointestinal tract, usually driven by KIT or PDGFRA mutations, treated mainly by complete surgical resection and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, especially imatinib.

2. GI neuroendocrine tumours — GI-NETs / carcinoid tumours Tumours arising from neuroendocrine cells of the GI tract, often slow-growing, sometimes hormone-producing, treated by site-specific resection, lymph node surgery, somatostatin analogues, liver-directed therapy, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy, and sy