Somatostatin is a hormone made naturally in the body that helps keep your body from making too much of other hormones. Somatostatin analogs are man-made, synthetic versions of somatostatin that bind to specific proteins that act as somatostatin receptors on the surface of certain cancer cells. The analogs work to slow down an over-production of hormones and relieve the symptoms caused by too-high hormones.
If you have somatostatin analogs are part of your treatment, they are usually delivered by injection into a muscle every 4 weeks. Some examples of these drugs include:
- Lanreotide
- Octreotide