Case report reveals humoral hypercalcemia from PTHrP-secreting medullary thyroid carcinoma, indicating a rare cancer link.
INTRODUCTION: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor arising from the parafollicular C cells, accounting for approximately 1.5% of all thyroid cancers. Although calcitonin secreted by the MTC typically lowers calcium levels, serum calcium concentrations usually remain within the normal range due to compensatory parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion. Hypercalcemia of malignancy is broadly categorized as humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM), mediated by parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), or local osteolytic hypercalcemia. We report a rare case of HHM caused by a PTHrP-secreting MTC.
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Hirose et al. (2026) studied this question.
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