A patient is described who presented with a 10 year history of intermittent peptic ulcer symptoms and a 3 year history of an undiagnosed skin rash. Investigations indicated raised plasma levels of gastrin, glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide. A single tumour was localised to the pancreas and resected. The tumour had the typical histology of an apudoma, and contained cells which stained for gast...

A patient is described who presented with the classical symptomatology and profound electrolyte disturbance of the Verner-Morrison syndrome due to a pancreatic apudoma secreting vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). Diagnosis was confirmed by plasma VIP as measured by a radio-immunoassay technique now available. It is suggested that the cyclical nature of the symptoms in this case was due to...

Neuroendocrine tumors arise from cells that originate in the neural crest. Although these cells have a common embryological origin, they are distributed to various sites and organ systems throughout the body, where they can give rise to a variety of tumor types that are related by their common embryological origin. These cells share a characteristic feature of the ability to produce peptide hor...

Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is often referred to as Merkel cell carcinoma of the skin, trabecular cell carcinoma, cutaneous apudoma, and primary small-cell carcinoma of the skin. NEC is derived from Merkel cells found in the hair follicles of mammals that form complexes with terminal axons to act as mechanoreceptors to pressure. Merkel cells are also found in the dermis, epidermis, and oral ...

A female patient is described with a single pancreatic tumour producing vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), insulin, and pancreatic polypeptide. The initial presentation was with diarrhoea and hypokalaemia and a raised plasma VIP was demonstrated. Her symptoms improved with metoclopramide administration and absolute concentrations of 28 aminoacid (peak IV) VIP were found to have fallen. Sh...

AIMS To determine retrospectively the relative usefulness of electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry for tumour diagnosis; to monitor the influence of new antibodies and antisera on the use of these techniques in one laboratory. METHODS During 1980 to 1989 inclusive, 726 tumours were examined by electron microscopy, 862 by immunocytochemistry, and 286 by both techniques. The choice of tec...

The development of the aralkylguanidine [13’I]m-iodobenzylguanidine ([i3’I]MIBG) in the University of Michigan Nuclear Medicine Division has led to diagnostic and therapeutic evaluations of all the neuroendocrine tumors. These tumors share the property of uptake, storage and release of [‘3’I]MIBG uptake in chromaffin granules. This property has allowed the detection of pheochromocytomas, the de...

A simple and reliable radioimmunoassay has been developed for a new gut hormone, HPP. In the primate 93% of the total PP was found in the pancreas with a small amount throughout the remaining gastrointestinal tract. HPP has been shown to be produced by a number of pancreatic apudomas and their metastases. The immunoreactive PP from these tumours and from normal pancreas was chromatographically ...