Somatostatin in preoperative therapy and postoperative diagnosis of a patient with Verner Morrison syndrome

• Published in: Langenbecks Archiv für Chirurgie Vol. 377; no. 6; p. 345
• Main Authors: Weinel, R J, Neuhaus, C, Stapp, J, Klotter, H J, Trautmann, M E, Arnold, R, Josef, K, Rothmund, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: Germany 1992
• Subjects: Adult; Calcium - blood; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Injections, Subcutaneous; Male; Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia - diagnosis; Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia - surgery; Neoplasm Metastasis; Octreotide - therapeutic use; Palliative Care; Pancreatic Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Pancreatic Neoplasms - surgery; Parathyroid Hormone - blood; Premedication; Radioligand Assay; Radionuclide Imaging; Receptors, Somatostatin - analysis; Vipoma - diagnostic imaging; Vipoma - surgery
• ISSN: 0023-8236

We report the case of a patient with Verner-Morrison syndrome due to a malignant MEN I-associated vipoma. Marked tumor-associated hypercalcemia could be treated successfully with somatostatin analogues prior to surgical therapy of the pancreatic tumor. Sixteen months after extirpation of the primary tumor recurrent tumor growth was diagnosed; at this time the patient was clinically asymptomatic and had no abnormal laboratory test results. Liver metastases and local metastases were identified using somatostatin receptor scintigraphy. We report and discuss the use of somatostatin in the treatment of tumor-associated symptoms in endocrine tumors and the possibility of identifying endocrine tumors by means of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy.