[Reclassification of gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors]

ABSTRACT

Background: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors - commonly called GISTs - are rare; yet, they represent an important type of mensenchymal tumors arising within the gastrointestinal tract. The acronym GIST was introduced in 1998 to define a well established pathological entity which bears a highly specific marker called KIT [CD117]. Scientific interest for these tumors in recent years is mainly due to the progress in identification by immunohistochemistry and the advent of targeted molecular therapy