Liferaft Group's Podcast

Cancer has always been scary. There has always been a terror of fatal diseases. Cancer, considered as one of the fatal diseases, is fearful. It is upsetting to encounter such a disease and there is nothing more than life of a person in the world. Life is precious. But, never mind, if there is a disease there is a cure as there is shade with sunshine. Life is not granted by god for free. We yearn it by our good deeds, god is with everyone and he is very loving, he cannot let anyone harm or suffer for no reason. Have faith in god and just look up to him for the cure, he will definitely solve all the problems of life.

Gist, abbreviated form of gastrointestinal stromal tumours, belongs to a group of cancer called soft tissue sarcomas. They are a rare type of cancer that can occur in connective tissue, bones, muscles, fat, nerves, blood vessels, and cartilages. It is believed that most of the times Gist arises from the stomach, some arise from the small intestine and then a few arise from colon and rectum. It can also be found in oesophagus and sometimes it develops outside the intestinal tract in the abdominal cavity.

The introduction of the drug gleevec for the treatment of Gist has sparked a tremendous amount of interest and research. Gleevec is a molecularly targeted drug that is both more effective and has fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy. Cancer treatments are developing really fast and the use of technology is been made perfectly. So be optimistic as there is a cure of every disease, so keep the fingers crossed and keep praying for your loved ones.

Cancer is the name of that disease which makes anyone shiver and the on the worst if it diagnosed on the last stage as it cannot be cured. Primary peritoneal cancer prognosis is also not good but still it can be cured. They are usually diagnosed when a person goes for some other diseases problem. Gastro intestinal stromal tumors or GIST tumor in short is one such disease which is diagnosed when a person goes for an abdominal pain. It is usually found at 3rd or 4th stage.

GIST is a rare tumor of the GI tract. GI (gastro intestinal) is the system that processes food for energy and purge the body of solid waste. It is also known as the digestive system. Earlier gist disease is thought to start in the nerve cells in the GI tract as the tumor cells look like nerve cells or muscle under the microscope. But now it is found that gist start in special cells found in the walls of GI tract, known as the interstitial cells of cajal (ICCs). ICCs are part of the autonomic nervous system which regulates body processes. It is like ‘pacemaker’ of the GI tract as they send signals to the muscles in the digestive system to contract to move food and liquid through the GI tract. The diagnosis of this gist tumor is made with a biopsy, which can be obtained endoscopically with CT or ultrasound guidance.

The good news for these disease patients is that it can now be cured with a protein inhibitor called gleevec. Gist did not responded to surgery, radiation or chemotherapy has given a positive response to gleevec. It is usually the first line of defense that attacks the tumor and shrinks it. Its success rate in case of gist is 70%, which is very rare in other cancers. The use of gleevec began in 2001 in the therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia and it turned to be a real success. Since then gleevec was used for curing other types of cancers. Gleevec targets on abnormal cells of the body and doesn’t attack healthy cells like other chemotherapeutics. Unlike other drugs, gleevec side effects are far less dangerous for the human body. Gleevec causes vomiting, skin rashes, nausea, or fluid retention due to its toxicity. But detection of gleevec was a real success in the field of cancer treatment as it was able to treat conditions which were not possible with other therapies.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is one of the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. It is defined as tumor whose behavior is driven by mutations in the kit gene or PDGFRA gene, and may or may not stain positively for Kit. It can occur in esophagus, stomach, gallbladder, liver, small intestine, colon, rectum, and lining of the gut. Initially GIST was thought to be muscle or nerve tumor, but recent research points to GIST starting in cells of Cajal (ICC); these cells send signals to the GI tract to help move food and liquid through the system.

GIST Cancer is often found accidentally when a patient goes for test or surgery for stomach trouble. However some people can experience abdominal pain, bleeding from the bowel, decreased appetite and tiredness. The actual reason behind Gist is unknown but maximum patients suffering from gist have a protein called kit (CD 117) that becomes abnormal which then causes normal cells to grow faster and become cancerous. Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is quite rare. Most cancers are carcinomas, meaning that they derive from cells in the skin, either outer-body skin or the skin-like lining of internal body cavities and the digestive or gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Most GI tract cancers are carcinomas, such as those commonly known as stomach cancer, colon cancer, etc. GIST is not related to these common GI cancers; it is a sarcoma. Of all adult cancers, sarcomas represent about 1%. GIST is one of the most common of about 50 types of sarcoma.

To diagnose gist, doctors ask for history of physical exam and blood work. An upper endoscopy may be ordered to locate the tumor and/or to obtain a biopsy or piece of the tumor. An endoscopy is a test in which a tube with a camera at the end is placed into the mouth and passed through the esophagus, or food pipe, and into the stomach that allows the doctor to look for a tumor. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen and pelvis will also be obtained to understand where the tumor is and what size it is. This will also help the cancer doctor decide if the tumor can be removed or not.

The treatment of GIST can be done by surgery. However, some tumors become very large or spread to other parts of the body where surgery would not be curative. In such situations, a medicine called imatinib (Gleevec) is prescribed by the doctors. This is a pill taken once or twice daily by mouth. It works by attaching to KIT and blocking its ability to let cancer cells grow. This medication can either shrink the tumor or at least keep it from growing in patients.