Abstract
Background
Although hypercalcemia is a common complication of breast carcinoma (BC), it may be due to primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT), which has a similar sex or age predilection to that of BC. The rate of underlying asymptomatic pHPT in BC patients with hypercalcemia is exceptionally high, so the clinical data were retrospectively analyzed.
Method
To investigate coexistent pHPT in BC patients, the medical records of persons who had undergone surgery for primary BC without bone metastases between October 2004 and March 2008 at the Tsuchiura Kyodo General Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. The corrected serum calcium level was measured in all 243 patients. Ten patients who noted hypercalcemia above 11.0 mg/dl via the corrected serum calcium were selected in order to investigate pHPT.
Result
Among the 243 patients investigated, 7 were diagnosed with pHPT, and 5 of those patients required surgical treatment. In all five patients, the parathyroids were pathologically diagnosed to have adenoma.
Conclusion
Primary hyperparathyroidism was diagnosed in 2.88% of the BC patients, which was more than expected, in comparison to the incidence of pHPT in adult women, which is 0.04–0.08%. It is important to assess whether pHPT is associated with the treatment of BC.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- BC:
-
Breast carcinoma
- pHPT:
-
Primary hyperparathyroidism
- LOH:
-
Local osteolytic hypercalcemia
- HHM:
-
Humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy
- HPT:
-
Hyperparathyroidism
- PTHrP:
-
Parathyroid hormone-related protein
- iPTH:
-
Intact parathyroid hormone
- PTX:
-
Parathyroid adenectomy
- ALP:
-
Alkaline phosphatase
- ER:
-
Estrogen receptor
- PgR:
-
Progesterone receptor
- HER2:
-
Human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2
- SIR:
-
Standardized incidence ratio
References
Michels KB, Xue F, Brandt L, Ekbom A. Hyperparathyroidism and subsequent incidence of breast cancer. Int J Cancer. 2004;110(3):449–51.
Stewart AF. Clinical practice. Hypercalcemia associated with cancer. N Engl J Med. 2005;352:373–9.
Nilsson IL, Zedenius J, Yin L, Ekbom A. The association between primary hyperparathyroidism and malignancy: nationwide cohort analysis on cancer incidence after parathyroidectomy. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2007;14:135–40.
Barutica S, Yurekli Y, Erdogan S, Kadikoylu G, Kacar F. Parathyroid adenoma-related hypercalcemia in breast cancer: a critical diagnosis in clinical oncology. IJCP. 2003;57:729–30.
Fierabacci P, Pinchera A, Miccoli P, Conte PF, Vignali E, Zaccagnini M, et al. Increased prevalence of primary hyperparathyroidism in treated breast cancer. J Endocrinol Invest. 2001;24(5):315–20.
Pickard AL, Gridley G, Mellemkjae L, Johansen C, Kofoed-Enevoldsen A, Cantor KP, et al. Hyperparathyroidism and subsequent cancer risk in Denmark. Cancer. 2002;95(8):1611–7.
Strodel W, Thomson NW, Eckhauser FE, Knol JA. Malignancy and concomitant primary hyperparathyroidism. J Surg Oncol. 1988;37:10–2.
Axelrod DM, Bockman RS, Wong GY, Osborne MP, Kinne DW, Brennan MF. Distinguishing features of primary hyperparathyroidism in patients with breast cancer. Cancer. 1987;60:1624–30.
Allerheiligen HA, Schoeber J, Houston RE, Mohl VK, Wildman KM. Hyperparathyroidism. Am Fam Physician. 1998;8:1795–802.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Tanaka, Y. Primary hyperparathyroidism with breast carcinoma. Breast Cancer 17, 265–268 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-009-0158-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-009-0158-0