Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P61278 (somatostatin)
 22,083 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Somatostatinomas are rare endocrine tumors that were first described in 1977. In addition to the present case report, there have been 31 cases reported in the literature. We have reviewed the literature to integrate the symptoms, physical findings, diagnostic tests, treatment, and length of survival of these patients. Although the symptoms that occurred in the majority of cases were those that are seen in most patients with intra-abdominal neoplasms, symptoms relating to the presence of excess circulating somatostatin--diabetes, maldigestion, and cholelithiasis--were frequently seen. Physical findings and the results of diagnostic tests were usually nonspecific. The majority of the patients underwent radical surgical procedures (Whipple procedure or pancreatic resection). The pancreas was the most frequent site of involvement (21/31 cases), but primaries in the duodenum, ampulla of Vater, cystic duct, and jejunum have been described as well. Metastases were most frequently seen in the liver and lymph nodes. Chemotherapeutic agents were administered to 10 patients, usually as adjuvant therapy, and appear to be useful in treating recurrent and metastatic disease. The one-year survival of these patients is 48%, which is better than that for patients with carcinoma of the pancreas or biliary tree. Therefore, it is important that the diagnosis of somatostinoma be made so that the patient may be treated accordingly and followed by serial somatostatin levels for evidence of metastasis or recurrent disease.
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PMID:Somatostatinoma: a case report and review of the literature. 304 Nov 16

A patient with glucagonoma syndrome and hypoglycemic attack is presented. Total pancreatectomy was performed with splenectomy and excision of the metastatic nodule in the liver. Diagnosis of glucagon-secreting A cell carcinoma of the pancreas was confirmed by hormone assays and morphological studies with light and electron microscopy. Glucagon, insulin, and somatostatin were demonstrated immunohistochemically in the tumor tissue. Multihormonal features of the endocrine pancreatic tumors are discussed.
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PMID:Glucagon-secreting pancreatic islet cell carcinoma, containing insulin and somatostatin, with hypoglycemic attack. 612 21

A case of pancreatic carcinoma with both acinar and endocrine features is presented. The patient was a 52-year-old female presenting with jaundice of 3 weeks' duration. The tumor was a 6 x 6 cm-sized round solid mass in the head of pancreas, invading the superior mesenteric vein. Histologically, it was composed of monotonous ovoid cells with eosinophilic granular cytoplasm in solid nests and sheets with occasional acinar and glandular differentiation. Immunohistochemical study revealed coexpression of acinar and endocrine markers; amylase, chromogranin, neuron-specific enolase, glucagon, somatostatin, and gastrin in tumor cells. This is the first documented case of mixed acinar-endocrine carcinoma of the pancreas in Korea, and its amphicrine nature reflects a close histogenetic relationship between pancreatic exocrine and endocrine cells.
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PMID:Mixed acinar-endocrine carcinoma of the pancreas--a case report. 883 69

Pancreatic carcinoma is characterized by poor prognosis and lack of response to conventional therapy for reasons that are not clear. Because of the structural relationship between the exocrine and endocrine pancreas and high concentrations of islet hormones bathing pancreatic tissue, we hypothesized that pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and glucose utilization are regulated by pancreatic islet hormones, particularly insulin. Based on this, the effect of islet hormones on pancreatic cancer cells in vitro was investigated. Five pancreatic cancer cell lines, CD11, CD18, HPAF, PANC-1, and MiaPaCa2 were used to investigate the effect of islet hormones on cell proliferation, glucose utilization, and GLUT-1 expression. Insulin, but not somatostatin and glucagon, induced pancreatic cancer cell growth in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. At concentrations within the range of those in the intrapancreatic vasculature, insulin (10(-10)-10(-8) mol/L) markedly increased [3H]-thymidine incorporation. Insulin significantly enhanced glucose utilization of pancreatic cancer cells before it enhanced cell proliferation. The MAPK kinase inhibitor PD 098059 abolished insulin-stimulated DNA synthesis and partially reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. In contrast, the PI3 kinase inhibitor wortmannin substantially inhibited insulin-induced glucose uptake and partially blocked thymidine incorporation. Furthermore, after 24-hour treatment with insulin, GLUT-I expression in pancreatic cancer cells was markedly increased, indicating that insulin enhances glucose utilization partly through increasing glucose transport. These findings suggest that insulin stimulates proliferation and glucose utilization in pancreatic cancer cells by two distinct pathways. Insulin augments DNA synthesis mainly by MAP kinase activation and glucose uptake mainly by PI3 kinase activation and enhancement of GLUT-I expression. High intrapancreatic concentrations of insulin are likely to play an important role in stimulating pancreatic cancer growth indirectly by increasing substrate availability as well as by direct action as a trophic factor.
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PMID:Physiological concentrations of insulin augment pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and glucose utilization by activating MAP kinase, PI3 kinase and enhancing GLUT-1 expression. 1103 77

Although octreotide has been shown to inhibit the growth of gastrointestinal (GI) tumors in vitro and in vivo, preliminary clinical trials have reported disappointing results for this somatostatin analog in patients with GI cancers. The results of these trials probably reflect the difficulty in assessing the therapeutic potential of an agent such as octreotide in GI cancers. Thus, it is possible that treatment with octreotide could be useful in the stabilization of disease if it is associated with an improvement in survival. On the basis of these considerations five randomized trials were carried out to evaluate the therapeutic potential in patients with GI cancers. Four trials (one in patients with colorectal carcinoma and three in patients with carcinoma of the pancreas) did not show any advantage of octreotide in untreated patients; in contrast, one trial reported that octreotide prolonged survival in patients with GI cancers refractory to chemotherapy. Some clinical features of the latter study (treatment with chemotherapy, different schedules) may explain these conflicting results. Although data from randomized trials suggest that octreotide is not effective in untreated asymptomatic advanced GI cancer patients, further studies are warranted to assess the efficacy of octreotide in chemotherapy refractory patients in order to clarify the impact of octreotide in terms of not only survival but also on the patients' quality of life.
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PMID:Gastrointestinal cancer refractory to chemotherapy: a role for octreotide? 1127 6

We report a patient with insulinoma associated with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. A 67-year-old woman was first admitted to our hospital for an abdominal mass. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed a large pancreatic tumor, which was then diagnosed as an unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. At the age of 71, she presented symptoms of hypoglycemia. Fasting blood glucose was 21 mg/dl and plasma immunoreactive insulin level was 846 microU/ ml. Plasma gastrin, glucagon, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and somatostatin levels were all normal. At the age of 73, hypoglycemic attacks occurred more frequently and she was admitted to our hospital. Abdominal CT scan showed multiple liver metastases. Chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and doxorubicin was performed. Three months later, she had an emergency laparotomy because of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Plasma gastrin level was 1,960 pg/ml at that time. Gastric hypersecretion was well controlled with a proton pump inhibitor (lansoprazole) but she died of widespread cancer dissemination 8 years after her first admission. On autopsy, histologic examination revealed a mixed acinar-endocrine carcinoma of the pancreas. Immunohistochemical stains were positive for insulin, gastrin, and alpha1-antitrypsin.
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PMID:Insulinoma with subsequent association of Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. 1139 7

Histidine decarboxylase (HDC) is an enzyme for decarboxylating l-histidine to histamine and is expressed in various types of cells including neuroendocrine tumors. Recent findings have demonstrated a high percentage of HDC immunoreactivity in many neuroendocrine tumors, including carcinoid tumors, small cell carcinomas of the lung, pheochromocytomas, and medullary carcinomas of the thyroid. HDC immunostaining was applied to pancreatic islet cells and related tumors to explore possible expression of HDC as a wide spectrum marker for neuroendocrine differentiation. A total of 24 cases (22 pancreatic endocrine neoplasms, one small cell carcinoma of the pancreas, and one mixed exocrine-endocrine carcinoma) along with normal pancreatic tissue were immunostained with the anti-HDC antibody. In a normal pancreas, a double immunostaining revealed possible colocalization of HDC with glucagon- or insulin-positive cells in the islets. Seventeen of 22 pancreatic endocrine neoplasms (77%) were found to be positive for HDC, and no distinct relation to hormonal activity was observed. One small cell carcinoma was strongly positive to HDC. One non-functional tumor with mixed exocrine and endocrine components showed a diffuse positive immunostaining for HDC, and some neoplastic glucagon- or somatostatin (SRIF)-positive cells coexpressed HDC. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the majority of pancreatic endocrine tumors expressed HDC, and we suggest that HDC is a wider new marker for neuroendocrine differentiation.
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PMID:Histidine decarboxylase expression in pancreatic endocrine cells and related tumors. 1514 99

The author reports a typical but rare case of non-functioning well differentiated endocrine carcinoma of the pancreas. A 67-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal pain. No hormone-related symptoms were recognized. He has no familiar history of pancreatic neoplasms. Various imaging modalities including US, CT and MRI revealed a tumor of the pancreatic body. Distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy were performed. A solid well demarcated tumor was present in the pancreatic body. Peripancreatic lymph nodes showed marked swelling suggestive of metastases. Immunohistyochemically, tumor cells were positive for cytokeratin, synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase, and CD56; they were negative for chromogranin, gastrin, glucagon, somatostatin, pancreatic polypeptide, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. The pathological diagnosis was non-functioning well differentiated endocrine carcinoma of the pancreas.
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PMID:Non-functioning Well Differentiated Endocrine Carcinoma of the Pancreas. 2799 Feb 10