title: Humoral hypercalcemia complicating adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon: report of a case.
abstract: Humoral hypercalcemia can arise from a variety of malignancies, but its association with primary colorectal carcinoma is rare, with only 20 such cases documented in the English-language literature to date. We report an additional case to clarify the clinicopathologic features of colorectal carcinoma with humoral hypercalcemia. A 54-year-old woman was admitted with symptomatic hypercalcemia of 14.2 mg/dl and multiple hepatic metastases, 2 years after resection of sigmoid colon cancer. The hypercalcemia was caused by the circulating parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) produced by poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma in the liver. The PTHrP level on admission was 13.5 pmol/l. Despite systemic chemotherapy, the patient died of disease progression 3 weeks after the humoral hypercalcemia was diagnosed. A review of the 21 reported cases, including ours, suggests that colorectal carcinoma associated with humoral hypercalcemia is characterized by a poorly differentiated tumor with or without squamous or neuroendocrine features, distant metastases, and a dismal prognosis.
authors: Division of Digestive and General Surgery, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 1-757 Asahimachi-dori, Niigata 951-8510, Japan.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Sakata
authors: Toshifumi
authors: T
authors: Wakai
authors: Yoshio
authors: Y
authors: Shirai
authors: Eiko
authors: E
authors: Sakata
authors: Go
authors: G
authors: Hasegawa
authors: Katsuyoshi
authors: K
authors: Hatakeyama
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006934:Hypercalcemia / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010257:Paraneoplastic Syndromes / Q000150:complications; D044162:Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein / Q000097:blood; D012811:Sigmoid Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: D044162:Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein