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¹ , Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Gastroenterologia and² Dipartimento Clinico di Scienze Radiologiche ed Istopatologiche, Università di Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy

(Correspondence should be addressed to P Tomassetti, Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University of Bologna, Policlinico S Orsola-Malpighi, Via Massarenti 9, 40138 Bologna, Italy; Email: paola.tomassetti{at}unibo.it)

Gastric endocrine tumors associated with autoimmune chronic atrophic gastritis (gastric carcinoid type I) are almost exclusively benign lesions with little risk of deep invasion of the gastric parietal wall. For this reason, the role of octreotide in the treatment of these neoplastic lesions is controversial. Nine patients with more than five type I gastric endocrine tumors each <1 cm in size, without invasion of the muscularis propria and with Ki-67 index lower than 3%, were treated with long-acting somatostatin analogs for 12 months. After 6 months and again after 12 months, all the patients underwent upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy with multiple biopsies. The plasma chromogranin A (CgA) levels and the gastrin levels in the serum were also determined. In all patients, the gastric neoplastic lesions disappeared after 12 months of somatostatin analog therapy. We also observed a significant reduction of CgA and gastrin levels at 6 and at 12 months of therapy as compared with the baseline values. We demonstrate that somatostatin analog treatment provokes the pathological regression of type I gastric carcinoids. This therapeutic approach should be considered as a valid option in selected patients with multiple type I gastric endocrine tumors.