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Tamoxifen‐induced hypercalcemia in breast cancer
Author(s) -
Legha Sewa S.,
Powell Kimberly,
Buzdar Aman U.,
Blumenschein George R.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19810615)47:12<2803::aid-cncr2820471208>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - tamoxifen , medicine , breast cancer , complication , metastatic breast cancer , antiestrogen , oncology , cancer , surgery
Among 470 patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with tamoxifen, ten patients (2.3%) developed hypercalcemia. All patients with hypercalcemia had osteolytic or mixed lytic and blastic bone metastases. Hypercalcemia developed after a median period of seven days (range 4–11 days) of tamoxifen administration. Hypercalcemia was treated with conventional measures and serum calcium levels normalized in nine patients, either with a brief interruption of tamoxifen therapy or in spite of continued treatment. Four patients experienced partial remissions with continued tamoxifen therapy. These results indicate that hypercalcemia is a potentially serious complication of tamoxifen therapy but is generally short‐lived, and can be controlled with supportive measures, thus allowing continued tamoxifen administration.