Background: Humoral hypercalcemia rarely is associated with colorectal carcinoma; to the authors' knowledge only nine cases have been reported to date.
Methods: Two cases of advanced colorectal carcinoma with humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM) are presented.
Results: The two patients had severe hypercalcemia without bone metastases. The diagnosis of HHM was based on findings of hypercalcemia, hypophosphoremia, elevated serum parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP), and positive tumor immunoreactivity to monoclonal PTHrP antiserum. One patient had a colonic adenocarcinoma with a neuroendocrine component and the other patient had rectal adenocarcinoma. Immunoreactive PTHrP was found in both tumor components. Bisphosphonate treatment normalized the hypercalcemia within a few days but it recurred in the patients 2 weeks and 3 weeks later, respectively. The prognosis was extremely poor.
Conclusions: To the authors' knowledge the two cases presented in the current study are the first to be reported with HHM-associated colorectal carcinoma with positive tumor immunoreactivity to PTHrP monoclonal antiserum.
Copyright 1999 American Cancer Society.