Treatment of malignant endocrine pancreatic tumors with a new long-acting somatostatin analogue, SMS 201-995

Ten patients with malignant endocrine pancreatic tumors were treated with SMS 201-995 at doses of 50 micrograms twice daily, administered subcutaneously. Four out of 10 patients (40%)-1 patient with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome and 3 of 6 with the watery diarrhea syndrome--responded objectively with more than 50% reduction of peptide levels, with a median duration of 15.5 months. All four patients improved symptomatically, with decreasing dyspeptic symptoms and decreasing diarrhoea. Three additional patients had a clear relief of symptoms without an effect on tumor-secreted peptides. The disease progressed in three patients during treatment. No reduction of tumor mass was seen in any of the patients. The main side effect noted was a slight but maintained increase in fasting blood glucose in four patients. In conclusion, SMS 201-995 had a beneficial effect in more than half of the patients and seems to be a valuable adjunct to other causal therapy in this patient category, especially in acute situations and weak patients because of its very few side effects.