Insulin-like growth factor II-producing intra-abdominal hemangiopericytoma associated with hypoglycemia

We report a patient with insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-II-producing hemangiopericytoma with hypoglycemia in whom repeated intra-abdominal recurrences developed over a period of about 10 years and tumor resection was performed four times. A 67-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital in 1995 because of hypoglycemic attacks. In 1985, partial resection of the small bowel had been performed for a 17-cm abdominal tumor of the transverse mesocolon, and the pathological diagnosis was hemangiopericytoma. In 1991, left hemicolectomy had been performed for a mesosigmoidal tumor associated with hypoglycemia. In 1994, hysterectomy, bilateral adnexectomy, and resection of an intrapelvic tumor were performed. The fourth operation was performed in 1996, about 10 years after the first operation. The spleen was removed, together with more than 1500 tumors having a total weight of 1660g. The hypoglycemia was ameliorated after each operation. Before this operation, her serum IGF-I level was low, but her IGF-II level was within the normal range; however, the Western immunoblot method showed that most of the IGF-II was high-molecular-weight IGF-II. The tissue IGF-I level was also low, and the IGF-II level was high, suggesting an IGF-II-producing tumor. We suspect that the mechanism of the hypoglycemia in this patient was related to the high-molecular-weight IGF-II produced by the tumor. The patient died in 1997 because of tumor recurrence.