The role of somatostatin and octreotide in bowel obstruction: Pre-clinical and clinical results

Malignant bowel obstruction is a common complication in patients with advanced abdominal or pelvic cancer. Whereas surgery should be considered in all cases of malignant bowel obstruction, many advanced and terminal cancer patients are considered unfit for surgery. In such patients with a short life expectancy, gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, continuous and/or colicky pain, can be controlled by using a pharmacologic approach made up of analgesics, antiemetics and antisecretory drugs, without the use of a venting nasogastric tube. Among the antisecretory drugs, octreotide has been shown to reduce nausea and vomiting in bowel-obstructed patients owing to a reduction of gastrointestinal secretions, thus allowing in most patients removal of the nasogastric tube and the associated distress. Preclinical and clinical studies that demonstrated the role of somatostatin and octreotide in bowel obstruction are reviewed.