Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;67(1):204-208.
doi: 10.1007/s12020-019-02136-z. Epub 2019 Nov 28.

Long-term remission of disseminated parathyroid cancer following immunotherapy

Marta Sarquis  1 , Stephen J Marx  2 , Albert Beckers  3 , Arthur R Bradwell  4 , William F Simonds  5 , Maria Aparecida C Bicalho  1 , Adrian F Daly  3 , Daniela Betea  3 , Eitan Friedman  6 , Luiz De Marco  7
Affiliations

Long-term remission of disseminated parathyroid cancer following immunotherapy

Marta Sarquis et al. Endocrine. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: Parathyroid cancer is a rare tumor associated with poor prognosis particularly when disseminated. While chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy are of no clinical value in disseminated disease, immunotherapy should be considered.

Subject and results: A patient with CDC73-associated metastatic parathyroid carcinoma was treated with combined anti-hPTH immunotherapy and surgery.

Conclusions: Following five courses of anti-hPTH immunotherapy and subsequent surgery, a 12-year long remission of disseminated parathyroid cancer is reported. This case further supports the ever-expanding spectrum of cancers that may benefit from immunotherapy.

Keywords: Cancer; Immunotherapy; Parathyroid.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Total calcium (reference 8.3–10.6 mg/dL) and b total PTH (reference 18.5–88.0 pg/mL) values over time. Normal range is shown in gray. The high levels of PTH during and immediately post immunization are attributed to cross reactivity with the immunogen. Dotted lines point to all five courses of immunization (IM), and surgical procedure (S) to remove newly discovered lesions in Brazil (11/26/2007) after previous surgery (May 2007) at the NIH
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
High resolution chest CT. a 2.5 cm noncalcified left apical multilobulated mass (2007). b 7 mm right lobe nodule, (2007). c Absence of right lobe nodule (2019). d 7.5 mm postsurgical residual fibrotic striae (2019), which have been stable since 2008
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Fragment of pulmonary tissue, showing chronic granulomatous inflammation with multinucleated giant cells. Parathyroid cancer cells are not shown in this image (image not available)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sadler C, Sadler C, Gow KW, Beierle EA, Doski JJ, Langer M, Nuchtern JG, Vasudevan SA, Goldfarb M, Parathyroid carcinoma in more than 1,000 patients: a population-level analysis. Surgery 156, 1622–1629 (2014) - PubMed
    1. Betea D, Potorac I, Beckers A, Parathyroid carcinoma: challenges in diagnosis and treatment. Ann. Endocrinol 76, 169–177 (2015) - PubMed
    1. Salcuni AS, Cetani F, Guarnieri V, Nicastro V, Romagnoli E, de Martino D, Scillitani A, Cole DEC, Parathyroid carcinoma. Best Pract. Res. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab 32, 877–889 (2018) - PubMed
    1. Brewer K., J. Costa-Guda, A. Arnold, Molecular genetic insights into sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism. Endocr. Relat. Cancer 26, R53–R72 (2019) - PubMed
    1. Cavalier E, Daly AF, Betea D, Pruteanu-Apetrii PN, Delanaye P, Stubbs P, Bradwell AR, Chapelle JP, Beckers A, The ratio of parathyroid hormone as measured by third- and second-generation assays as a marker of parathyroid carcinoma. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab 95, 3745–3749 (2010) - PubMed

Publication types