A prospective study was done of serum calcitonin (HCT) levels in 61 patients with bronchogenic cancer. Initially, 52% of patients had hypercalcitonemia. Hypercalcitonemia was not confined to patients with any particular histologic type. Seventy-eight percent of those with high calcitonin remained normocalcemic. There was no correlation between high calcitonin levels and osseous metastases. Selective thyroid venous sampling delineated two types of hypercalcitonemia: thyroidal and ectopic. To date, the ectopic type has been associated with the small cell bronchogenic carcinoma. High initial calcitonin levels decreased significantly in 75% of patients on antitumor therapy. In 13 evaluable patients calcitonin levels mirrored clinical status changes 67% of the time. Calcitonin may be a useful marker to assess the results of therapy in patients with bronchogenic cancer.
Cancer 44:680-684, 1979.
N 1976, in a preliminary study of selected I patients with bronchogenic cancer, we reported that hypercalcitonemia occurred in 62%. In the present study, we have performed a two-year prospective investigation of consecutively admitted patients with lung cancer, in order to determine the incidence of high calcitonin levels, the relative occurrence of hypercalcitonemia by histologic cell type, the relationship of serum calcitonin to hypercalcemia and to the presence of bone metastases, and the relative occurrence of thyroidal hypercalcitonemia vs. ectopic hypercalcitonemia.'"-12 In addition, changes of serum calcitonin levels in response to antitumor therapy were evaluated.