title: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor overexpression in cancer and its impact on clinical applications.
abstract: Peptide hormones of the glucagon-like peptide (GLP) family play an increasing clinical role, such as GLP-1 in diabetes therapy. Moreover, GLP receptors are overexpressed in various human tumor types and therefore represent molecular targets for important clinical applications. In particular, virtually all benign insulinomas highly overexpress GLP-1 receptors (GLP-1R). Targeting GLP-1R with the stable GLP-1 analogs (111)In-DOTA/DPTA-exendin-4 offers a new approach to successfully localize these small tumors. This non-invasive technique has the potential to replace the invasive localization of insulinomas by selective arterial stimulation and venous sampling. Malignant insulinomas, in contrast to their benign counterparts, express GLP-1R in only one-third of the cases, while they more often express the somatostatin type 2 receptors. Importantly, one of the two receptors appears to be always expressed in malignant insulinomas. The GLP-1R overexpression in selected cancers is worth to be kept in mind with regard to the increasing use of GLP-1 analogs for diabetes therapy. While the functional role of GLP-1R in neoplasia is not known yet, it may be safe to monitor patients undergoing GLP-1 therapy carefully.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cell Biology and Experimental Research, Institute of Pathology, University of Berne Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Körner
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Christ
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.forename: Jean Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Reubi