[Endocrine tumors of the pancreas. Status of the question]

Progress in radioimmunology and immunohistochemistry and the use of intraoperative ultrasonography has considerably improved the diagnosis of endocrine tumors. These advances have changed the prognosis of these tumors since the outcome directly depends on early diagnosis. Surgery is the treatment of choice, in many cases even in the presence of hepatic metastasis. Medical treatment should be used when surgery is contraindicated and includes cytostatic agents (e.g. streptozotocin, 5-FU) or interferons and drugs preventing hormone release such as long-acting somatostatin analogs (SMS 201-995). Finally, symptomatic treatment alone should be confined to cases of unresectable tumors with diffuse metastasis.