EVIDENCE FOR SECRETION OF VASOACTIVE INTESTINAL PEPTIDE BY TUMOURS OF PANCREAS, ADRENAL MEDULLA, THYROID AND LUNG: SUPPORT FOR THE UNIFYING APUD CONCEPT

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Abstract
SUMMARY: Levels of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) were measured by radioimmunoassay in plasma or tissue from thirty‐five patients with watery diarrhoea, and in plasma of twenty‐five normal controls. Plasma levels were between 0.6 and 11.0 ng/ml in thirty‐one of the thirty‐three patients in whom it was measured and too low to measure (<200 pg/ml) in the other two. Peptide levels were <200 pg/ml in twenty‐three of the controls, but higher in the remaining two. All tissues from patients were ‘rich’in VIP (10 ng to 35 μg per g). The aetiologic diagnoses included pancreatic islet‐cell adenoma or adenocarcinoma, islet‐cell hyperplasia, bronchogenic carcinoma, pheochromocytoma, ganglioneuroblastoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and retroperitoneal histocytoma. The findings support the conclusions that: (1) VIP is a likely mediator of the watery‐diarrhoea syndrome; (2) the syndrome may result from a variety of tumours; (3) this or a related peptide hormone may be secreted by these tumours; and (4) these tumours may have a common embryonic origin.