Introduction: The safety of octreotide use, in its short-acting preparation, in pregnancy is still unclear. This report provides the first documentation of uneventful octreotide LAR use during three pregnancies in a woman with bronchial carcinoid-associated adrenocorticotropic hormone-dependent Cushing's syndrome.
Case presentation: A 25-year-old Arabic woman presented to our emergency department with rapid onset of headache, flaring acne and hirsutism, facial puffiness, weight gain and paroxysmal myopathy, and paranoiac thoughts of rape and sexual intimidation. After undergoing surgical removal of a mass by left lower lung lobectomy, her residual lung disease medical therapy failed. Chronic octreotide LAR injections were initiated as indicated by a positive octreoscan.Follow-up revealed a long-lasting positive response to octreotide. Avidity of octreotide to somatostatin receptor sub-type 2 was later confirmed by a positive somatostatin receptor sub-type 2 in the resected tumor specimen. Against our instructions, the patient had three spontaneous pregnancies leading to delivery of three full-term healthy children while her octreotide LAR therapy continued.
Conclusion: This case adds more data supporting the potential for the safe use of octreotide and the feasibility of octreotide LAR use during pregnancy, making compliance with the patient's preference not to withdraw octreotide therapy as soon as her pregnancy is confirmed a thoughtful option.