A Case of Long-Term Surviving Pancreatic Somatostatinoma with Multiple Liver Metastases by Effective Treatment followed Regional Resection

Koji Kitamura, Naoki Yokoo, Yasuhito Kitakado, Hisaya Azuma, Takahiro Yoshida, Hiromitu Nagata, Tetuya Shiota and Kiyotaka Okamoto*

Department of Surgery and Department of Pathology*, Takayama Red Cross Hospital

We report a case of long-term surviving pancreatic somatostatinoma with multiple liver metastases treated by reduction surgery and repeated transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE). A 40-year-old woman referred for general fatigue and weight loss, and found to have diabetes and a hypervascular pancreatic tumor and multiple liver tumors in imaging such as abdominal angiography was suspected of having endocrine tumor, so studied for hormone levels in the blood. Serum somatostatin was elevated to 56 pg/ml. Distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy was done to debulk the tumor based on a preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic somatostatinoma. TAE was done every 3 to 4 months after the operation. The metastatic liver tumors have not increased in site and no other metastasis has been detected in CT. The woman remains in good physical condition in the over 5 years since suvgery.

Key words
somatostatinoma, multiple liver metastases, transcatheter arterial embolization

Reprint requests
Koji Kitamura Department of Surgery, Takayama Red Cross Hospital
3-11 Tenman-cho, Takayama-shi, 506-8550 JAPAN

Accepted
June 30, 2004

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