Treatment of malignant metastatic pancreatic insulinoma with streptozotocin. Review of 21 cases described in detail in the literature and report of complete remission of a new case

Abstract

The possibilities of treating different types of pancreatic islet cell cancer with the active drug streptozotocin have been studied in reports of 21 patients published during the last 8 years. The unusual features of the symptomatology, dosage and injection methods, side-effects after different infusion schedules and complications of streptozotocin therapy, are compared. A new case with pancreatic carcinoma and liver metastases was treated with a total dose of 14 g streptozotocin, divided into 7 injections with an increasing interval between them. This patient underwent a marked amelioration of the disease, without serious side-effects of the streptozotocin treatment. She has been apparently well for the 22 months which have now elapsed since the beginning of treatment. This seems to be one of the longest remission periods yet published in the insulinoma literature.