Imatinib treatment in cancer patients suffering from chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and other types of cancers106,107, has been linked to increased bacterial infection, such as P. aeruginosa108–112, suggesting that increased vulnerability to infection in these patient cohorts could be due to dampened NLRC4 inflammasome activity. This evidence concerns the gene NLRC4 and gastrointestinal stromal tumor.