What are the treatments for Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome ?
A health care provider treats Zollinger-Ellison syndrome with medications to reduce gastric acid secretion and with surgery to remove gastrinomas. A health care provider sometimes uses chemotherapymedications to shrink tumorswhen tumors are too widespread to remove with surgery.
                
Medications
                
A class of medications called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) includes
                
- esomeprazole (Nexium)  - lansoprazole (Prevacid)  - pantoprazole (Protonix)   - omeprazole (Prilosec or Zegerid)  - dexlansoprazole (Dexilant)
                
PPIs stop the mechanism that pumps acid into the stomach, helping to relieve peptic ulcer pain and promote healing. A health care provider may prescribe people who have Zollinger-Ellison syndrome higher-than-normal doses of PPIs to control the acid production. Studies show that PPIs may increase the risk of hip, wrist, and spine fractures when a person takes them long term or in high doses, so its important for people to discuss risks versus benefits with their health care provider.
                
Surgery
                
Surgical removal of gastrinomas is the only cure for Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Some gastrinomas spread to other parts of the body, especially the liver and bones. Finding and removing all gastrinomas before they spread is often challenging because many of the tumors are small.
                
Chemotherapy
                
Health care providers sometimes use chemotherapy drugs to treat gastrinomas that cannot be surgically removed, including
                
- streptozotocin (Zanosar)  - 5-fluorouracil (Adrucil)  - doxorubicin (Doxil)