Treatment of the Dumping Syndrome With Lanreotide Autogel®

Background Somatostatin and octreotide LAR (long-acting analogue) exert a number of inhibitory effects: on gut hormones, but also on gastro-intestinal secretion and motility. Somatostatin analogues are effective in preventing symptoms and signs of both early and late dumping as demonstrated previously. However, octreotide LAR causes gastrointestinal side effects and the injection solution is difficult to prepare. Recently, a new somatostatin analogue with a prolonged release formulation, Lanreotide autogel (L-autogel), has become available. It is a viscous aqueous gel, composed solely of water and lanreotide. Deep subcutaneous administration may lead to increased treatment acceptance compared with intramuscular depot preparations. It is more easy to prepare and is though to cause less local side effects and technical problems than octreotide LAR. Recent studies have been done to measure the efficacy and safety of L-autogel in acromegalic treated previously with octreotide LAR. These studies showed that L-autogel is effective and well-tolerated in these patients, with equivalent or better disease control and less gastrointestinal adverse events. Until now, there is no data available on the effectivety of L-autogel in patients with a dumping syndrome. Therefore, this study aims to establish the effectiveness and tolerability of L-autogel in patients with a dumping syndrome, previously treated with octreotide LAR.