Imatinib therapy produced durable, long-term overall survival in a subset of patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in a follow-up of a randomized clinical trial involving 695 individuals.

Participants—all of whom had advanced GIST that could not be treated surgically—received imatinib mesylate either 400 mg/day or twice daily. Investigators looked at overall survival. Among the results:

• 27% of patients survived 8 years or longer, split equally between the 2 dosage groups.
• The 10-year estimate of overall survival was 23%.
• Imatinib was the sole therapy administered in ~half of the 142 long-term survivors.
• Additional systemic agents were given to ~4 in every 10 of the long-term survivors.