The Metabolism of Bone Mineral in Malignancy without Evidence of Bone Destruction

Abstract

Most patients with malignant disease exhibit normal metabolism of bone mineral, various disturbances in it being found in only a small number. Among the disturbances found, hypercalcaemia has long been the most frequently, and regularly reported phenomenon. In the last decade, owing to a remarkable increase in interest in calcium and phosphate metabolism, hypercalcaemia has been observed in patients with a wide variety of cancers, chiefly with bone metastases, but without overt bone metastases as well. Myers (1960) found hypercalcaemia in 430 patients from a 5-year group of patients with malignant tumours. Of these patients, 225 (52.3 per cent) had cancer of the breast, 33 (7.7 per cent)—lymphomas, 29 (6.7 per cent)—cancer of the lung, 18 (4.2 per cent)—cancer of the kidney, 12 (2.8 per cent)—cancer of the uterine cervix, 11 (2.5 per cent)—plasmacytoma, and the remaining 102 (23.8 per cent) had miscellaneous tumours. Roentgenograms of the skeleton were negative for metastases in 56 (13.0 per cent) patients from this group.