Metastatic insulinoma-outcomes in the current era.

BACKGROUND

Multimodal interventions in neuroendocrine tumors appear to have a beneficial impact on survival. Metastatic insulinoma is associated with hypoglycemia and, historically, a shortened life expectancy.

METHODS

The authors retrospectively analyzed the clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic insulinomas treated at a tertiary care center between 2006 and 2023.

RESULTS

Clinical data on 14 patients with metastatic insulinoma (metastases to the liver, skeleton, and lung) were reviewed in this descriptive study. The patients underwent various treatments including surgery; liver directed therapies (embolization, selective internal radiotherapy), somatostatin analogs; targeted agents (everolimus); systemic chemotherapy (capecitabine/temozolomide; carboplatin/etoposide); external beam radiation; and peptide receptor radiotherapy. Seven subjects died during follow-up. The time of the 7 deaths ranged from 2.5 to 10.4 years (median time to death was 8.2 years). This compares to previous reports of median survival of about 2 years. Seven subjects are alive 1.2-12.3 years after diagnosis. Hypoglycemia was well-controlled and did not cause the deaths.

CONCLUSIONS

Multimodal interventions in metastatic insulinoma can be effective in managing hypoglycemia. The patients on multimodal treatments also lived a long time when considering previous published reports of median survival of just 2 years. Our findings challenge previous assumptions regarding clinical outcomes in this patient population.