Introduction

 

Hypercalcaemia is a raised level of corrected calcium * in the blood. It is the commonest life-threatening metabolic disorder in cancer patients, most frequently occurring in myeloma, breast, renal, lung and thyroid cancers. However, 20% of patients with hypercalcaemia do not have bone metastases.

 * Corrected calcium = measured calcium + 0.022 x (40 - serum albumin g/l) see Corrected calcium