Lymph nodes metastasis and recurrences justify an aggressive treatment of gastrinoma

In the current study, short- and long-term outcomes after aggressive surgical treatment for gastrinoma were evaluated. From August 1990 to August 2009, 20 patients diagnosed with Zollinger Ellison syndrome were reviewed. Eleven pancreaticoduodenectomies, three total pancreatectomies, four lymph node dissections, four enucleations and two palliative procedures were performed. Four (27.8 %) patients had disease associated with MEN1 syndrome, 13 (72.2 %) had sporadic gastrinomas (SG) and 3 had disease of unknown primary origin. No in-hospital mortality was observed. After radical resection, lymph node metastasis was present in 82 % of the cases. Eight percent of patients who underwent radical resection developed recurrence compared with 100 % of those who underwent enucleoresection (p = 0.03). Average time to recurrence in patients with sporadic gastrinoma was 66.7 months (confidence interval (CI) 62.9-70.5) in those treated with enucloeresection compared to 181.1 months (CI 124.3-237.8) in the radical resection group (p = 0.007). One recurrence was observed in the MEN1 group. Based on post-operative mortality, recurrence and lymph node metastasis, our data suggest that patients with gastrinoma should undergo abdominal exploration with aggressive resection of the primary tumour and regional lymph nodes in place of conservative treatment.