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Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Causes, Risk Factors, and Prevention

Learn about the risk factors for gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Risk Factors

A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Learn more about the risk factors for gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Prevention

The only known risk factors for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) − older age and certain rare, inherited genetic syndromes – cannot be changed. There are no known lifestyle-related or environmental causes of GISTs, so at this time we do not know of any way to protect against these cancers.

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