Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 24, 2025; 16(6): 104314
Published online Jun 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i6.104314
Immunotherapy in gastrointestinal stromal tumors: Current landscape and future horizons
Stavros P Papadakos, Alexandra Argyrou, Ioannis Karniadakis, Stamatina Vogli, Stamatios Theocharis
Stavros P Papadakos, Alexandra Argyrou, First Department of Gastroenterology, Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, General Hospital of Athens "Laiko", Athens 11527, Greece
Stavros P Papadakos, Stamatios Theocharis, First Department of Pathology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Ioannis Karniadakis, Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of General Surgery, St. George's Hospital, St. George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London 84790, United Kingdom
Stamatina Vogli, Department of Gastroenterology, Metaxa Oncologic Hospital of Piraeus, Athens, Greece, Athens 18537, Greece
Co-first authors: Stavros P Papadakos and Alexandra Argyrou.
Author contributions: Papadakos SP and Argyrou A contributed equally to the work and should be considered co-first authors; Papadakos SP and Theocharis S contributed to the conceptualization and study design; Papadakos SP wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Argyrou A, Karniadakis I, and Vogli S contributed to the literature review and manuscript drafting; Theocharis S and Papadakos SP critically reviewed and edited the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Stamatios Theocharis, MD, Senior Researcher, First Department of Pathology, Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, General Hospital of Athens "Laiko", 17 Agiou Thoma Street, Goudi, Athens 11527, Greece. stamtheo@med.uoa.gr
Received: December 20, 2024
Revised: February 10, 2025
Accepted: March 5, 2025
Published online: June 24, 2025
Processing time: 185 Days and 12.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Immunotherapy for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) remains an emerging field with promising but early-stage developments. This editorial summarizes the current landscape of immunotherapy in GISTs, focusing on the immune microenvironment, advances in biomarker discovery, and innovative strategies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, cytokine-based therapies, and adoptive cell therapies. Future directions emphasize the integration of immune profiling and personalized combination therapies to optimize treatment outcomes. Understanding these dynamics will be essential for overcoming resistance and improving precision oncology in GIST management.