[Current views on the treatment of insulinoma]

RELEVANCE

Insulinoma is the most common hormonally active neuroendocrine tumor (NET) of the pancreas. In recent years, there has been a trend towards an increase in the incidence of NET especially insulinoma.

AIM

Summarizing and analyzing current data on various approaches to the treatment of insulinoma. Our review includes a comprehensive assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of currently available insulinoma treatment methods in comparison with past experience, as well as a review of promising methods that are not currently widely used.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Analysis of literature from such databases as scientific electronic library elibrary.ru, Pubmed, Google Scholar, MedLine, Scopus and Web of Science.

RESULTS

The most common treatment for insulinoma is surgery. For patients with high operative risk, alternative methods such as alcohol ablation, radiofrequency ablation, and tumor embolization may be used. Medications include the use of somatostatin analogues, diazoxide. The literature describes the potential benefit of the use of beta-blockers, phenytoin, glucagon, however, in clinical trials, these drugs have not demonstrated a significant effect. For the treatment of malignant and metastatically advanced insulinoma, targeted therapy (primarily Everolimus), chemotherapy, as well as embolization (including chemoembolization, radioembolization), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation and cryoablation, ultrasound ablation (HIFU), laser ablation, brachytherapy, irreversible electroporation are used.

CONCLUSION

The study of new drugs is an important task for scientists, among medications the most promising are new generations of somatostatin analogues, targeted drugs and chemotherapy drugs. The rare frequency of insulinoma makes it difficult to conduct randomized controlled trials and prospective studies. That is why physicians and scientists need to maintain close contacts with each other and take into account the experience of treating each patient with such disease, which will help develop effective treatment algorithms in the future.

Endoscopic ultrasound guided radiofrequency ablation for pancreatic tumors: A critical review focusing on safety, efficacy and controversies

The role of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in the last two decades has shifted from a diagnostic tool to an important therapeutic tool treating mainly pancreato-biliary disorders. In recent years, its applications for treating pancreatic diseases have broadened, including the implementation of radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which has been traditionally used for treating solid tumors. In this critical in-depth review, we summarized all the papers throughout the literature regarding EUS-RFA for pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, adenocarcinoma, and pancreatic cystic lesions. Overall, for pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms we identified 16 papers that reported 96 patients who underwent EUS-RFA, with acceptable adverse events that were rated mild to moderate and a high complete radiological resolution rate of 90%. For pancreatic adenocarcinoma, we identified 8 papers with 121 patients. Adverse events occurred in 13% of patients, mostly rated mild. However, no clear survival benefit was demonstrated. For pancreatic cystic lesions, we identified 4 papers with 38 patients. The adverse events were mostly mild and occurred in 9.1% of patients, and complete or partial radiological resolution of the cysts was reported in 36.8%. Notably, the procedure was technically feasible for most of the patients. Nevertheless, a long road remains before this technique finds its definite place in guidelines due to several controversies. EUS-RFA for pancreatic tumors seems to be safe and effective, especially for pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, but multicenter prospective trials are needed to consider this treatment as a gold standard.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided ethanol and radiofrequency ablation of pancreatic insulinomas: a systematic literature review

BACKGROUND

Insulinoma is the most common neuroendocrine neoplasm of the pancreas, characterised by hypoglycaemic symptoms. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (EUS-RFA) and ethanol ablation (EUS-EA) are novel methods for treating insulinoma.We aimed to perform a systematic review to assess the efficacy and safety of EUS-guided ablation techniques for pancreatic insulinomas.

METHODS

We systematically searched for articles detailing EUS-guided ablations of insulinomas. We performed a qualitative analysis and summarised data on the efficacy and safety of EUS-RFA and EUS-EA techniques.

RESULTS

In total, we identified 35 case reports and case series describing 75 patients with insulinomas treatment with EUS-guided ablation. Twenty-seven patients were treated with EUS-RFA, 47 patients with EUS-EA, and 1 patient received EUS-EA and EUS-RFA in the same session. In total, 84 insulinomas were ablated (EUS-RFA: 31, EUS-EA: 53). Most insulinomas were in the head of the pancreas (40%). The clinical success rate for EUS-guided ablation techniques was 98.5%. The median glucose level was 1.95 (Q1-Q3: 1.69-2.13) mmol/L before ablation compared to 6.20 (Q1-Q3: 5.30-7.05) mmol/L after treatment. The median insulin and C-peptide levels before and after RFA/EA were 230 (Q1-Q2: 120-257) pmol/L and 41 (Q1-Q2 35-42) pmol/L; 2077 (Q1-Q2 1644-2459) pmol/L and 819 (Q1-Q2 696-1072) pmol/L, respectively. There were eleven adverse events: seven abdominal pain, two mild acute pancreatitis, one necrotising acute pancreatitis and one local hematoma. All patients recovered, and there were no periprocedural deaths.

CONCLUSIONS

EUS-guided ablation of insulinoma seems to be a safe and effective treatment and is an alternative to surgical resection in selected cases.

Endoscopic Ultrasound

Endoscopic ultrasound provides high-resolution, real-time imaging of the gastrointestinal tract and surrounding extramural structures. In recent years, endoscopic ultrasound has played an increasing role as an adjunct or alternative method to conventional surgical therapies. The role of endoscopic ultrasound in diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal malignancy, pancreatic diseases, and biliary diseases continues to evolve. Therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound procedures for a variety of pancreatic and biliary indications shows a high technical and clinical success rate, with low rate of adverse events. Endoscopic ultrasound plays a key role in multidisciplinary management of complex surgical and oncology patients and those with pancreaticobiliary disorders.