For gastrointestinal mesenchymal stromal tumors (GIST), Gao et al. first discovered that USP13, which is regulated by METTL3-IGF2BP2, stabilizes ATG5 in a PAK1-dependent manner, increasing its expression and potentially inducing protective autophagy that enhances GIST tolerance to imatinib. Here, ATG5 is linked to gastrointestinal stromal tumor.