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.