Man detected with rare pancreatic tumour

COIMBATORE: Marudhamuthu Veerappan, 45, a farmer from Karur suddenly fainted one evening after work in February. While he was revived a few seconds later, the same episode occurred twice within the same week for no apparent reason. “The family, including his wife Mallika, approached a primary health centre in the locality suspecting it to be a psychiatric problem,” said the general surgeon who was on the team who operated on Veerappan, Dr M Muralidharan.The centre had then referred him to the government hospital, suspecting he had a neurological problem.
“We realised that there was no neurological issue with his brain. But a tumour was detected in his pancreas,” said head professor of the surgical oncology department at GH, Dr Suresh Venkatachalam. Further tests revealed that Veerappan had a relatively rare tumour called insulinoma in the bottom half of his pancreas.
Doctors say insulinoma, which occurs in around one to four in a million people globally, creates a condition opposite of that caused by diabetes. “This is a neuroendocrine tumour which excretes excess insulin in the body. Which creates low blood sugar levels and frequent hypoglycemic episodes such as fainting,” said Dr Venkatachalam.
Almost 95% of insulinomas are also known to be benign. But the tumour found on Veerappan was malignant. “It was in May that we removed the lower half of the pancreas in a four-hour long surgery to ensure that the cancer did not spread to any other part of the boy,” said Dr Venkatachalam. However, strangely doctors saw a set of small tumours on the left side of his liver. “It surprisingly did not show up in the CT scan,” he said. Doctors realised that the cancer had spread to his liver tumours. On Monday, Veerappan was re-admitted into the GH for another four-hour long surgery to get the left side of his liver removed. A few sessions of somatostatin is being arranged for the patient either free of cost or at subsidised rates at a private hospital.