Endocrine Abstracts

Malignancy is the most common cause of hypercalcaemia. Hypercalcaemia in solid tumours involves the secretion of humoral factors by tumour cells that act systemically on target organs (bone, kidney) to alter calcium homeostasis. Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is a major humoral factor. It is produced by a variety of solid tumours and acts on PTH receptors to cause increased calcium reabsorption from renal tubules and increased bone resorption. Other humoral tumour...

Hypercalcaemia is the commonest endocrine complication of malignant disease. In most cases the underlying cause is a combination of excessive bone resorption and increased tubular reabsorption of calcium brought about by the effect of the onco-feto protein parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP). Other causes of hypercalcaemia of malignancy include direct interaction of malignant cells with bone; this is most commonly seen with haematological malignancies where there is st...

Despite its broad biological importance, the regulation of phosphate homeostasis remains incompletely understood. Important new insights into underlying mechanisms were made by defining the molecular basis of different inherited disorders characterized by an abnormal regulation of phosphate homeostasis. These efforts have led to the identification of three novel regulators of phosphate homeostasis, namely PHEX, FGF23, GALNT3. Additional studies have furthermore revealed hetero...

The question why thyroid carcinoma metastasises to the skeleton can be reformulated into the more general question why bone metastases occur in cancer.In the development of bone metastases, three phases can be distinguished.First, tumors cells have to be released into the vascular system. The process of vascular invasion and haematogenous spread involves a cascade of events that will not be summarized here, but apparent differences...