2024/10/30 by Umesh Masharani, Sheila Lindsay, Farhana Moon +2 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Advances #Lung Cancer Research Studies #Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery
paper · doi:10.1093/oncolo/oyae275
openalex publication_date 2024/10/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
BACKGROUND: Multimodal interventions in neuroendocrine tumors appear to have a beneficial impact on survival. Metastatic insulinoma is associated with hypoglycemia and, historically, a shortened life expectancy. METHODS: The authors retrospectively analyzed the clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic insulinomas treated at a tertiary care center between 2006 and 2023. RESULTS: Clinical data on 14 patients with metastatic insulinoma (metastases to the liver, skeleton, and lung) were reviewed in this descriptive study. The patients underwent various treatments including surgery; liver directed therapies (embolization, selective internal radiotherapy), somatostatin analogs; targeted agents (everolimus); systemic chemotherapy (capecitabine/temozolomide; carboplatin/etoposide); external beam radiation; and peptide receptor radiotherapy. Seven subjects died during follow-up. The time of the 7 deaths ranged from 2.5 to 10.4 years (median time to death was 8.2 years). This compares to previous reports of median survival of about 2 years. Seven subjects are alive 1.2-12.3 years after diagnosis. Hypoglycemia was well-controlled and did not cause the deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal interventions in metastatic insulinoma can be effective in managing hypoglycemia. The patients on multimodal treatments also lived a long time when considering previous published reports of median survival of just 2 years. Our findings challenge previous assumptions regarding clinical outcomes in this patient population.