Secretion of parathyroid hormone in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma.

The secretion of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin (CT) was studied in 30 patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma. Most patients with elevated levels of CT were normocalcemic and also had normal basal levels of PTH. Five of six patients with associated hyperparathyroidism were hypercalcemic and had elevated basal PTH levels. Hormone secretion was also studied during infusions with standard and low doses of calcium. PTH unexpectedly increased during 12 of 18 calcium infusions. Such a paradoxical increase in PTH was seen in those patients with the greatest increase in CT and the least increase in calcium during the calcium infusion. Accordingly, increases in PTH concentration during the calcium infusions could be correlated directly with increases in CT and correlated inversely with increases in calcium. These observations suggest that, in some patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma, a further increase in the abnormally elevated CT levels may stimulate PTH secretion. Therefore, at least in acute studies, there may be a functional, as well as a genetic, relationship between the secretion of these two hormones in patients with this thyroid tumor.