AI Article Synopsis
- A patient had a tumor in the pancreas that caused very high levels of calcium in their blood, which is called hypercalcemia.
- Treatments to lower calcium were not working well, so doctors had to find another way to help the patient.
- After treating the tumor, the high calcium levels went down, and they found the tumor was making special substances that affected calcium levels in the body.
Article Abstract
A patient with a primary neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas, presented with severe hypercalcemia. This hypercalcemia of malignancy (HCM) failed to respond to intensive bisphosphonate treatment and needed continuous enhanced diuresis. Only after successful antitumor therapy did the hypercalcemia subside. Hypercalcemia was associated with increased concentrations of plasma PTHrP, calcitonin and 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3). Bone mineral density was markedly increased. We demonstrated the presence of both PTHrP and calcitonin in the tumor at the mRNA and protein level, using RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. The high levels of plasma PTHrP and the demonstrated predominant renal mechanism in this case of HCM are suspected to be the cause for its refractoriness to bone resorption inhibitors. Our findings furthermore suggest that the tumoral production of calcitonin and PTHrP might have contributed to the increased bone mineral storage of calcium and thus probably attenuated the development of frank hypercalcemia.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2006.11.009 | DOI Listing |
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