About 50 to 60 percent of GISTs can be removed with surgery alone, according to a 2012 review and a 2016 review, respectively. The remaining 40 to 50 percent become recurrent.

The main mechanism of imatinib failure involves the emergence of resistant subpopulations harboring heterogeneous secondary mutations in KIT, which occurs for up to 90% of patients with GIST 26,73 .

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) ... Surgery is the main treatment for GISTs that haven’t spread to surrounding tissues and organs. The ultimate goal of surgery is to eradicate all of cancer.