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Ménétrier's disease is a rare hypertrophic gastropathy, causing protein leak. An overexpression of transforming growth factor alpha is involved. In inhibiting the epidermal growth factor receptor, cetuximab and somatostatin analogues are the two most promising treatments, allowing to avoid radical gastrectomy. We report the case of a patient with a sustained clinical remission after treatment with lanreotide, but without complete endoscopic healing. We discuss the available therapeutic options and present a literature review of somatostatin analogues for the treatment of Ménétrier's disease., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The effectiveness of cimetidine in decreasing protein loss in protein-losing gastropathies has recently been questioned. The present investigation was designed to test the effects of pentagastrin and cimetidine on gastric protein loss in 6 patients with this type gastropathy: 4 with Ménétrier's disease and 2 with Stempien's disease. Fecal and gastric loss of 51Cr-labelled proteins were measured and expressed as ml of plasma per unit of time +/- SEM. Gastric protein loss was measured during intravenous infusion of normal saline, pentagastrin alone (6 microgram/kg/h), combined pentagastrin and cimetidine (1.5 mg/kg/h), and cimetidine alone. Each solution was perfused during 105 min to obtain a steady state effect upon gastric protein loss during one hour. Fecal clearance was increased in all patients: 193 +/- 16 ml/day (N less than 40 ml/day). Gastric 51Cr albumin loss was increased by pentagastrin stimulation (15.9 +/- 1.2 ml/h); cimetidine resulted in a reduction of the pentagastrin induced loss (7.0 +/- 3.8 ml/h) while cimetidine alone had no effect (3.8 +/- 0.6 ml/h) on basal loss. Our results suggest that cimetidine therapy may be of benefit in decreasing protein loss in patients with this type of gastropathy.