Home Diseases and Conditions Insulinoma

Insulinoma

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Development Stage

Early Stage

Focused ultrasound research is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Clinical Trials

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

International Approval

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating international sites.

FDA Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved focus ultrasound for this condition. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites.

Early Stage

Clinical Trials

International

FDA Approved

Focused ultrasound for this condition has been researched in clinical trials. However, at this time, we are not aware of any open clinical trials.

Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with insulinoma. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasonic energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue) enabling insulinoma to be treated without surgery. 

Advantages
The primary treatment of insulinoma is surgery, although medications may be needed post operatively.

For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive alternative to surgery with less risk of complications – such as surgical wound healing or infection – at a lower cost. It can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue and is repeatable, if necessary.

With more clinical experience, focused ultrasound could potentially replace surgery as a primary option. In a case report, two patients had successful treatment of insulinomas. Neither required any medication post treatment, and there were no complications.

Clinical Trials

At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of insulinoma.

The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. 

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement 

Focused ultrasound treatment for insulinoma is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.

Notable Papers

Mele C, Brunani A, Damascelli B, Tichà V, Castello L, Aimaretti G, Scacchi M, Marzullo P. Non-surgical ablative therapies for inoperable benign insulinoma. J Endocrinol Invest. 2017 Jul 28. doi: 10.1007/s40618-017-0738-3.

Gianluigi OrgeraEmail author, Miltiadis Krokidis, Lorenzo Monfardini, Guido Bonomo, Paolo Della Vigna, Nicola Fazio, Franco Orsi. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumours: Report of Two Cases. CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology. April 2011, Volume 34, Issue 2, pp 419–423

Balawejder M, Skórkowska-Telichowska K, Kuniej T, Tuchendler R. Insulinoma located in the head of the pancreas: Is there an alternative to surgery? International Journal of Case Reports and Images 2014;5(4):285–294.


Click here for additional references from PubMed.