Oncology >>>> Gastrinoma - signs and treatment options

Gastrinoma - signs and treatment options.

Peptic ulcer of the stomach and intestines is a multifactorial disease, and its occurrence can be determined not only by external factors (stress, poor-quality nutrition, an infectious component (Helicobacter pylori)), but also by internal disorders - hormonal imbalance and secretory redundancy, as a result of increased hormonal activity of the glands internal secretion and islet cells of the pancreas (intestinal cells). So one of the pathologies that provoke ulceration on the walls of the stomach and intestines may be gastrinoma - a malignant formation that intensively produces the gastrointestinal hormone gastrin, which stimulates the secretion of hydrochloric acid. In the medical literature, the name of this disease is referred to as "Zollinger-Ellison syndrome".

This type of tumor develops more often in the tissues of the pancreas, but in recent years, a close study of gastrointestinal hormones, began to reveal the accumulation of endocrine islet cells (neoplasia) in the mucous membrane of the walls of the stomach and intestines, intensively producing gastrin.

Signs of gastrinoma are no different from signs of peptic ulcer of the digestive system (nausea, urge to vomit, pain symptoms during breaks between meals, diarrhea). Depending on where exactly the synthesis of the hubbub of gastrin is activated (stomach, duodenum), ulcers appear, causing pain, disturbances in the quality of food assimilation. In addition to the fact that an excess of hydrochloric acid causes injuries to the tissues of the digestive tract, it disrupts the processes of utilization of substances supplied with food (disrupts the fermentation of fats), which affects the quality of digestion, and, accordingly, the analysis of feces, showing typical signs of steatorrhea - fecal masses with an increased content fat (oily feces).

Diagnosis of gastrinoma is carried out:

by examining the walls of the stomach and intestines (endoscopy, gastroscopy),
by measuring the level of hydrochloric acid in the stomach,
based on an analysis of the level of the hormone gastrin in the gastrointestinal tract and in the blood from the pancreatic vessels,
by examinations using ultrasound and computed tomography of the state of the walls of the gastrointestinal tract and the state of the tissues of the pancreas,
using radioisotope research.

Gastrinoma is a resectable tumor, but in cases where surgery is impossible, drug therapy is performed - chemically inhibit the production of gastrin (streptozocin, dosorubicin, 5-fluorouracil), suppress tumor cell growth by radiation therapy (administration of the isotope octreotide), reduce the secretion of hydrochloric acid pumps), prescribe sparing diets to create opportunities for the early healing of erosions and ulcers in the walls of the gastrointestinal tract.

Gastrinoma is a dangerous tumor, since, by provoking trauma to the walls of the gastrointestinal tract, it creates conditions for their perforation, bleeding (internal bleeding), disturbances due to acid trauma to the tissues of the pylorus of the stomach (the sphincter between the stomach and the duodenum), which ceases to function correctly and, in critical cases, reflexively narrows to a lumen that does not allow food to pass (gatekeeper stenosis).

Gastrinoma is a metastatic tumor that scatters pathologically functioning cells through organs and tissues, which is especially important to consider when contacting a gastroenterologist for examination. After all, it is the early diagnosis and treatment of gastrinoma that prevents metastasis.