Endocrine tumors of the duodenum and upper jejunum. A study of 33 cases with clinico-pathological characteristics and hormone content

Abstract

Thirty duodenal and three upper-jejunal endocrine tumors are reported. Clinical manifestations included: a) the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (10 cases); b) peptic ulcer disease in which hypergastrinemia was not documented (3 cases); c) cholestasis or cholelithiasis (4 cases); d) abdominal pain (4 cases); e) gastro-intestinal bleeding (1 case); f) celiac sprue (1 case). Ten further tumors were discovered incidentally, at autopsy or in pathological specimens after gastrectomy or duodenopan-createctomy. Histological pattern was trabecular in 19 cases, insular in 2 and mixed in ten cases. Two cases were typical ganglioneuromatous paragangliomas. All tumors were examined immunohistochemically. Twelve tumors contained gastrin, four somatostatin, six both of these peptides, one serotonin, two both gastrin and serotonin, and two tumors contained gastrin, serotonin and somatostatin. Ganglioneuromatous paragangliomas combined somatostatin and/or pancreatic polypeptide containing endocrine cells with protein-S100-positive Schwann cells. In four tumors no peptide or amine was demonstrated. Gastrin cell tumors (63.6% of our cases), both functionally active (gastrinomas) and clinically silent, predominated in the proximal duodenum, while somatostatin cell tumors (15.1%) and paragangliomas were mostly found in the periampullary region. Two tumors were classified as malignant on the basis of lymph node metastases, and both were jejunal gastrinomas associated with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Two somatostatin cell tumors had manifestations of von Recklinghausen's disease.