[The pathology of insulinoma and gastrinoma. The location, size, multicentricity, association with multiple endocrine type-I neoplasms and malignancy].

The pathology of insulinoma and gastrinoma was studied in 81 patients (31 men, 50 women, mean age 48.4 years) suffering from persistent hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia, and in 44 patients (28 men, 16 women, mean age 48.5 years) with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Insulinomas were seen in the pancreas of all patients with persistent hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. In 70 of the 81 patients the insulinoma was solitary, whereas six patients had multiple insulinomas. In five patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type I, multiple endocrine tumours of the pancreas were visible, only one of them in each case being an insulinoma. 75% of all insulinomas were less than 2 cm in size and 15% were malignant. 18 of the 44 Zollinger-Ellison syndrome patients also had multiple endocrine neoplasia type I. Nine of these patients presented with duodenal gastrinomas which were often multiple and smaller than 0.5 cm. The gastrinoma was located in the pancreas of one of the patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia, in two patients in lymph nodes, and no gastrinoma was identified in the specimens from six patients. 33% of the duodenal gastrinomas had metastasised. Solitary gastrinomas were found in all 26 patients with sporadic Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, 14 being located in the pancreas (diameter over 2 cm in eight cases) and ten in the duodenum (diameter less than 1 cm in seven cases). 16 of these gastrinomas were malignant.