Hypercalcemia-leukocytosis syndrome in a patient with cavitating squamous cell carcinoma of the lung

Abstract

IntroductionLung cancer is the leading cause of death among the cancers seen in the United States. Hypercalcemia and leukocytosis are two common paraneoplastic syndromes associated with lung cancer. Unfortunately patients presenting with Hypercalcemia- leukocytosis syndrome has a worse prognosis than patients presenting with lung cancer alone.Case presentationWe present a 67 yr old Caucasian male with a history of active smoking presenting as pneumonia being diagnosed as cavitating squamous cell carcinoma of the lung with hypercalcemia-leukocytosis syndromeConclusionThere should be a high degree of suspicion to diagnose lung cancer in patients presenting with symptoms of paraneoplastic syndrome.

Cancer-associated hypercalcaemia in squamous-cell malignancies: a survival and prognostic factor analysis

“…In the authors' series, the prognostic factors of adverse outcome were: serum albumin-corrected calcium > 2.83 mmol/l, hypoalbuminaemia, presence of liver metastasis and squamous cell carcinoma 12 . CAH is frequently diagnosed in different squamous cell primary sites whether or not associated with leucocytosis in the hypercalcaemia-leucocytosis syndrome [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]16,17 .…”

Squamous cell carcinoma of thyroid: a unique type of cancer in World Health Organization Classification

“…The features were due to the parathyroid hormone-related protein and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Combination of hypercalcemia and leucocytosis in squamous cell carcinoma is rare and have been reported in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (Yazawa et al 1995) as well as squamous cell carcinomas of lung, penis and tongue (Burzyantseva et al 2009, Doraiswamy et al 2010, Kaneko et al 2016. Thus, hypercalcemia-leucocytosis paraneoplastic syndrome is a feature of squamous cell carcinoma and could be a clinical presentation of primary squamous cell carcinoma of thyroid.…”