S1Ep5 - Glucagonoma
I recently came across glucagonoma, a disease which I’d never heard about before. In this post, we will explore more about this rare disease, including symptoms and treatments.
❓What is Glucagonoma?
Less than 1 person in very 10 million develop this tumour. Essentially, it is a tumour that causes an excess release of glucagon from the pancreas. The tumour is a type of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour (the tumour develops into endocrine cells in the pancreas, these tumours can spread across the body).
Glucagonoma can start in the tail of the pancreas, most of the time, the cancer can metastasise and the most common areas for it to spread to include lymph nodes, the liver and bones.
Symptoms: 🧪
- Weight loss
- Rashes on skin – usually small circles of redness which develops into itchy blisters
- Blood clots
- Diarrhoea
- Low levels of red blood cells (anaemia)
- Mouth ulcers
How is it diagnosed? 👩🔬
Testing includes checking the blood glucagon levels alongside a biopsy of the rashes whilst scanning mechanisms such as CT and MRI can help show the tumour inside the body. A pathologist then can look at the Glucagonoma cells and identify how abnormal the cells are and if they are dividing quickly. There are three grades of Glucagonoma, G 1,2,3 with 3 growing very quickly and 1 growing slowly.
Treatments: 💊
- Surgery could be used to remove the tumour from the pancreas
- The ability to have surgery depends on multiple factors including: where the tumour is, how many tumours you have, whether it has spread to parts of the body or not, general health and fitness and symptoms experienced
- Alternative approaches include an amino acid drip and drugs to control blood sugar levels.