MALIGNANT HYPERCALCEMIA - PROGNOSTIC FACTORS FROM 51 PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED IN AN INTERNAL-MEDICINE DEPARTMENT

In our Internal Medicine department, we conducted a retrospective study of prognostic factors in patients with malignant hypercalcaemia. The records of 51 patients who had both hypercalcaemia and a histologically proven cancer were analyzed ; 42 had a solid tumour and 9 had a myeloma. In 61 % of the patients cancer had been revealed by hypercalcaemia. The main warning signs were alteration of the general condition (68.6 %), pain in the bones (54.9 %) and polyuria with dehydration (58.8 %). Osteolysis was observed in 75 % of the cases. The overall median survival was 86 days. Patients with myelomia had a significantly longer survival than patients with other tumours (312 versus 60 days ; p < 0.05). Patients who had received a causal treatment had a longer survival (176 versus 36 days, p < 0.001). In patients with solid tumours we found a negative correlation between survival and initial calcaemia, and a positive correlation between phosphoraemia, albuminaemia and survival. Multivariate analysis showed that the initial calcaemia level and the possibility of causal treatment were the two cardinal prognostic factors. Although the overall survival rate is mediocre, we believe that hospitalization of patients with malignant hypercalcaemia is justified for their better survival comfort and for the possibility of discovering a neoplasia that could benefit from an effective causal treatment, which is the principal factor of improved prognosis.