Hypercalcemia is a common and serious complication of cancer. In some patients, hypercalcemia occurs without direct tumor invasion of bone, presumably via a humoral mechanism. The identity of humoral factor(s) is not known, although PTH or prostaglandins may be the cause in some cases. The project goal is to identify factors responsible for humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy. This involves study of patients with this syndrome as well as an animal model for the syndrome, a leydig cell tumor of Fischer rats.
