Stimulation of calcium reabsorption observed in advanced breast cancer patients with hypercalcemia and multiple bone metastases

Abstract

In an attempt to analyze the pathological processes which lead to hypercalcemia in patients with multiple bone metastases, 23 advanced breast cancer patients with multiple bone metastases, three hypercalcemic patients with other malignancies and seven early breast cancer patients without any distant metastasis were studied. Of the 23 patients with advanced breast cancer, nine showed serum calcium levels higher than 10 mg/dl. In five of the nine hypercalcemic patients with advanced breast cancer, urinary cyclic AMP excretion was lower than 4 nmol/100 ml of glomerular filtrate (GF), indicating that the secretion of parathyroid hormone was suppressed. However, urinary cyclic AMP excretion was higher than 4 nmol/100 ml of GF in the other four hypercalcemic patients with advanced breast cancer and three hypercalcemic patients with other malignancies. In patients with higher urinary cyclic AMP excretion, fractional excretion of calcium (FECa) showed a negative correlation (r = 0.83, P less than 0.05) with urinary cyclic AMP. Parathyroid hormone immunoreactivity was not detected in any of six patients showing serum calcium levels higher than 11 mg/dl. These results suggest that in about a half of hypercalcemic patients with advanced breast cancer and multiple bone metastasis, there is a factor which increases urinary cyclic AMP and enhances calcium reabsorption in the kidney, but which is different from parathyroid hormone. This factor may facilitate retention of calcium mobilized into the circulation by bone metastases, and lead to hypercalcemia.