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World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2022; 14(4): 808-819
Published online Apr 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i4.808
Vasoactive intestinal peptide secreting tumour: An overview
Esther Una Cidon
Esther Una Cidon, Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Dorset, Bournemouth BH7 7DW, Dorset, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Una Cidon E designed and performed the research and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Not applicable.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Esther Una Cidon, MD, MSc, PhD, Doctor, Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Dorset, Medical Oncology Service, Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Castle Lane East, Bournemouth BH7 7DW, Dorset, United Kingdom.aunacid@hotmail.com
Received: March 17, 2021
Peer-review started: March 17, 2021
First decision: May 3, 2021
Revised: May 15, 2021
Accepted: March 25, 2022
Article in press: March 25, 2022
Published online: April 15, 2022
Processing time: 393 Days and 10.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) secreting tumour (VIPoma) is a rare functional neuroendocrine tumour that typically arises from pancreatic islet cells. It is usually sporadic but may present as part of the endocrine neoplasia type I syndrome in 5% of cases. Excessive VIP secretion produces a refractory secretory diarrhoea which left untreated will cause patient's death. The majority of VIPomas are malignant and have already metastasized at the time of diagnosis (60%), being the liver, or regional lymph nodes the most frequent site for metastases. Complete surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment, however, surgical debulking may provide palliative benefit. Other palliative options include somatostatin analogues and recently the peptide receptor radionuclide therapy which has shown to be effective and well-tolerated.