Objective To retrospectively explore the efficacy and safety of sunitinib as secondline therapy for Chinese patients with recurrent or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor （GIST） and analyze primarily the impact of further treatment on survival. Methods Twentyfour patients who failured to imatinib were treated with sunitinib 50mg daily（4 week on， 2 week off） as secondline from November 2008 to December 2009. Response rate was evaluated according to RECIST version 1.1 criteria and toxicity according to NCI CTC version 3.0 criteria. Results All 24 patients received 232 cycles of sunitinib（mean 9.7， range 2-29） and 8 patients received continues therapy after progression. Response rate（RR） was 25％ and DCR was 75％，including 6 PR，12 SD and 6 PD. Mean following-up duration was 378 days（190-1554），meanwhile 17 patients died during the period. Median PFS and OS of all cases were 336 days（95％CI： 223.2-448.8）and 655 days（95％CI：359.7-950.3），respectively. Median OS of non-continues treatment group and continues group were 392 days and 1303 days（P=0.000）. Common toxicities in most patients were grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ，with no treatment related death. Conclusion Response rate of sunitinib as second-line therapy on patients with recurrent or metastatic GIST failured to imatinib was similar to published data and survival was prolonged markedly. Common toxicities in most patients were gradeⅠ-Ⅱ. To GIST patients who progressed to sunitinib，continued therapy maybe benefit on survival and worthy of further study.