Survival in breast cancer patients after the first episode of hypercalcaemia

Abstract

; n ϭ 50). Fifty-one patients with severe hypercalcaemia all treated with bisphosphonate except one were identified retrospectively (period 2). Results. For period 1 median survival was 6.7 months. Survival was significantly decreased in the two groups with the highest initial S-Ca 2ϩ (P Ͻ 0.0001). Median survival times in severely hypercalcaemic patients from periods 1 and 2 were 1.4 (95% confidence interval 0.8-2.1) and 2.2 (95% confidence interval 1.3-3.1) months, respectively. In a Cox model for period 1 significant covariates were: WHO performance, extent of metastases, whether systemic anticancer treatment could be given, and haemoglobin, but not S-Ca 2ϩ . Conclusion.Prognosis is poor in hypercalcaemic breast cancer patients with WHO performance 3-4 and advanced metastatic disease when effective systemic treatment can no longer be offered. Bisphosphonate treatment does not seem to improve survival in severe hypercalcaemia. Antihypercalcaemic treatment of mild malignancy-associated hypercalcaemia appears not to be vital. Therapeutic efforts should be aiming at patients with moderate hypercalcaemia.

The risk and prognosis of cancer after hospitalisation for herpes zoster: a population-based follow-up study

“…For haematological cancer, on the other hand, herpes zoster appears to be associated with more aggressive disease, and this is similar to what has been found for other paraneoplastic syndromes, for example, venous thromboembolism and hypercalcaemia (Kristensen et al, 1998;Sørensen et al, 2000).…”

Cancer-associated hypercalcemia treated with intravenous diphosphonates: a survival and prognostic factor analysis

“…There is no clear evidence that diphosphonate therapy improves outcome after CAH. Historical comparisons did no show any significant difference in survival between the survival curves of patients that have been treated with diphosphonates and those not have been treated with disphosphonates [10]. Surprisingly, overall survival was not reported in the largest randomized study, which has challenged the role of two diphosphonates [6].…”

“…Despite its clinical efficacy, that is, normalization of serum calcium obtained in 40 to 100% patients with CAH [3][4][5][6], normalization of serum calcium observed within 4 days [3][4][5][6], and median duration of serum calcium normalization ranged between 11 to 48 days [3][4][5][6], the impact of pamidronate on overall survival is not clearly established [6,9,10].…”

A Prospective Study of Total and Ionized Serum Calcium and Time to Fatal Prostate Cancer

“…Thus, we suggest that the production of PTHrP by local prostate tumors is a plausible mechanism that could underlie the association between higher serum calcium and decreased prostate cancer survival. Hypercalcemia is known to predict decreased survival in other cancers that express PTHrP, including cancers of the breast and lung (21,22).…”