Question 81: Should I discontinue the current targeted therapy if my tumor has grown? Will all of my tumors become resistant at once?
Because cancer cells are genetically unstable, over time, a few GIST cells in your body can gain additional abnormalities independently from the other GIST cells. This can cause one tumor to become resistant while your drug still controls others. Stopping therapy entirely without using an alternative therapy allows all of the GIST cells in your body to grow aggressively. In this case, what might have been a partial drug resistance and limited disease progression can become widespread progression.