Hypercalcemia in carcinoma of the breast without evidence of bone destruction: Beneficial effect of hormonal therapy

✍ Scribed by Mario Sztern; Ariel Barkan; Raphael Marilus; Ilana Blum; Erika Rakowsky; Ruth Shainkin-Kestenbaum

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 296 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19811201)48:11<2383::aid-cncr2820481108>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

A premenopausal woman with soft tissue metastases from a carcinoma of the breast developed hypercalcemia with hypophosphatemia, reduced tubular reabsorption of phosphate, elevated urinary cyclic AMP levels and normal serum PTH levels. During the course of the disease, metastatic pleural effusion which contained high PTH levels was observed. Hormonal therapy with testosterone followed by tamoxifen induced normalization of her serum calcium concomitant with the disappearance of the pleural effusion and reduction in the size of her lung metastases. The correlation between the efficacy of antitumor treatment on pleural effusion, lung metastases, and normalization of serum calcium, as well as the elevated PTH level in the pleural effusion, suggest that this breast carcinoma secreted a PTHlike substance.

Cancer 482383-2385, 1981.

YPERCALCEMIA IS a common complication of car-