Gastrointestinal stromal tumour--a paradigm shift in management of solid tumours.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) till recently were non-responsive to all chemotherapy agents. With the advent of c-kit, diagnosis of GIST has become more specific. STI-571, a tyrosine kinase, has become one of the first targeted therapeutic agent tobe active in solid tumour. At present it is the only agent with substantial activity in GIST.