
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Insulinoma medical therapy
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Medical therapy is reserved for those who are unable to undergo the primary surgical therapy. Drugs commonly used for benign insulinoma are diazoxide, octreotide/lanreotide, phenytoin, verapamil and everolimus. For malignant insulinoma, these drugs are used with the chemotherapy drugs streptozocin, 5 fluorouracil, doxorubicin, bevacizumab and capecitabine in different combinations. For metastasis mainly going to liver regimens include hepatic artery embolization, radiation, chemo-embolization, ethanol ablation, radiofrequency ablation, and cryoablation.
Medical Therapy
Medical Therapy
- The primary treatment is surgical excision. Medical therapy is reserved for:
- Those who are unable to undergo surgery:
- High-risk patients
- Unresectable metastatic disease
- Those who refuse to undergo surgery:
- Those who are unable to undergo surgery:
- The medical therapy is mainly used to reduce/prevent symptoms of hypoglycemia.
- Pharmacologic medical therapies for insulinoma include diazoxide, octreotide/lanreotide, phenytoin, verapamil, and everolimus.
Benign Insulinoma
1. Adult
- 1.1 Parenteral
- Preferred regimen (1): Octreotide 30 mg IM (depot) every 4 weeks until tumor progression or death.
- Preferred regimen (2): Octreotide 100-500 μg SQ q 8-12h(can be increased to maximum 1500 μg daily)for 1 year.
- Preferred regimen (3): Lanreotide 120 mg SQ every 4 weeks until tumor progression.
- 1.2 Oral
- Preferred regimen : Diazoxide 3-8 mg/kg OR 200-300 mg PO q8h for 14-21 days (1200 mg max to be divided in 3 doses and max is 400 mg/dose).[1][2]
- Alternative regimen (1): Phenytoin 300-600 mg PO q daily. [3]
- Alternative regimen (2): Everolimus 10 mg PO q daily until disease progression.
- Verapamil and Propranolol to control symptoms are used either as alone or in combination.
- Glucocorticoids and glucagon have been used in combination with diazoxide.
2. Pediatric
- 2.1 Neonates and Infants:
- 2.1.1 Oral
- Preferred regimen: Diazoxide
- Initial dose: 10 mg/kg/day divided into 3 equal doses q 8 hours.
- Maintenance dosing range: 8 to 15 mg/kg/day divided into 2 or 3 equal doses every 8 to 12 hours.
- Preferred regimen: Diazoxide
- 2.1.1 Oral
- 2.2 Children and adolescents
- Follow the adult regimen
Malignant (metastatic) Insulinoma
1. Chemotherapy
It is used in the different combination of the following drugs:
- Streptozocin 500 mg/m2/day IV for 5 consecutive days every 6 weeks
- Doxorubicin 40-75 mg/m2 IV every 21 to 28 days
- 5 Fluorouracil(5-FU)
- Temozolamide 200 mg/m2 PO QHS days 10 to 14 of a 28-day treatment cycle (in combination with capecitabine)
- Bevacizumab
- Capecitabine
2. Liver-directed therapy (for metastasis)
- 2.1 Radiation
- 2.2 Hepatic artery embolization, chemo-embolization, and infusion. Infusion consists of:
- 2.2.1 Hepatic artery infusion (HIA): HIA is the administration of chemotherapeutic agents (high doses of streptozocin and 5-FU) into the hepatic artery. Response rates are 0 to 100%.
- 2.2.2 Isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP): HIP gave rise to minimally invasive, percutaneous hepatic perfusion.[3]
- 2.3 Percutaneous ethanol injection/ Ethanol ablation
- 2.4 Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
- 2.5 Cryoablation
References
References
- ↑ Goode PN, Farndon JR, Anderson J, Johnston ID, Morte JA (1986). “Diazoxide in the management of patients with insulinoma”. World J Surg. 10 (4): 586–92. PMID 3019020.
- ↑ Gill GV, Rauf O, MacFarlane IA (1997). “Diazoxide treatment for insulinoma: a national UK survey”. Postgrad Med J. 73 (864): 640–1. PMC 2431498. PMID 9497974.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mathur, Aarti; Gorden, Philip; Libutti, Steven K. (2009). “Insulinoma”. Surgical Clinics of North America. 89 (5): 1105–1121. doi:10.1016/j.suc.2009.06.009. ISSN 0039-6109.
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Amandeep Singh M.D.[2]
