Advances in the use of somatostatins in the management of endocrine tumors.

With the introduction of long-acting somatostatin analogues, several advances have been made in the management of endocrine tumors. Octreotide was first used for the management of acromegaly and later used for metastatic gastroenteropancreatic tumors. Somatostatin receptor imaging has recently been introduced not only for the localization of somatostatin receptor-positive tumors but also for selection of optimal therapy. In addition to inhibitory effects on exocrine and endocrine secretion, octreotide has also been suggested to have antiproliferative effects manifested mainly by stabilization of disease and not tumor regression.