Somatostatinoma

Somatostatinoma
Classification and external resources
Specialty	Oncology
ICD-O	M 8156/1
DiseasesDB	12277
eMedicine	med/2145
MeSH	D013005
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Somatostatinoma is a malignant tumor of the delta cells of the endocrine pancreas that produces somatostatin. Increased levels of somatostatin inhibit pancreatic hormones and gastrointestinal hormones. Thus somatostatinomas are associated with mild diabetes mellitus (due to inhibition of insulin release), steatorrhoea and gallstones (due to inhibition of cholecystokinin release), and achlorhydria (due to inhibition of gastrin release). Somatostatinomas are commonly found in head of pancreas.

In a normal subject actions of somatostatin include:

This explains how abnormally elevated somatostatin can cause diabetes mellitus, by inhibiting insulin secretion, steatorrhoea by inhibiting cholecystokinin and secretin, gall stones by inhibiting cholecystokinin which normally induce gallbladder myocytes to contract, and hypochlorhydria caused by inhibiting gastrin, which normally stimulate acid secretion.

Somatostatinomas are associated with calcium deposits called psammoma bodies.