Parathyroid carcinoma

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Parathyroid carcinoma” (Bull Cancer. 2006 Mar 1;93(3):283-7). Authors are Poissonnet G, Castillo L, Bozes A et al, from the Centre Antoine-Lacassagne, Nice, France. Parathyroid carcinoma is a rare disease accounting for 1 to 5% of parathyroid neoplasms. This malignant tumour must be suspected when a severe primary hyperparathyroidism occurs with high hypercalcemia and elevated parathormon levels. Both head and neck ultrasonography and 99mTc-sestamibi scintigraphy are the best preoperative imaging tests to suspect and localize the tumour. Tumour control should be monitored by regular measurement of calcium and parathormon levels. Local recurrence or metastasis risk is 30 to 70% and the 5 year overall survival about 50 to 80%. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.