Author/Authors :
Barbaryan, Aram Department of Internal Medicine - University of Kansas Medical Center - Kansas City - KS, USA , Poddutoori, Padma Department of Internal Medicine - University of Kansas Medical Center - Kansas City - KS, USA , Bailuc, Stefania Department of Medicine - HSHS Saint Mary’s Hospital - Decatur - IL, USA , Richardson, Aida Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine - University of Kansas Medical Center - Kansas City - KS, USA , Mirrakhimov, Aibek E. Department of Medicine - University of Kentucky - Lexington - KY, USA
Abstract :
Hypercalcemia in patients with cancer is a common laboratory finding affecting up to 44% of that patient population. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3mediated hypercalcemia is one of the rare mechanisms of this endocrine emergency in cancer patients. It iseven rarer for solid organ neoplasms to present with hypercalcemia mediated through the production of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3.We report a case of a 77-year-old female who presented to the hospital with hypercalcemia and later was found to have metastaticgastrointestinal stromal tumor. There have been only 5 cases of gastrointestinal stromal tumor described in literature resulting inhypercalcemia. In our case, the mechanism of hypercalcemia was thought to be related to overproduction of 1,25-dihydroxyvitaminby tumor cells. The patient had a favorable response to imatinib with normalization of serum calcium level. Unfortunately, shedeveloped fluid retention due to imatinib which was discontinued resulting in relapse of hypercalcemia that was resistant to allother treatment options.
