SERUM AND TISSUE CONCENTRATIONS OF IMMUNOREACTIVE CALCITONIN IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST-TUMORS

In 137 patients with classified mammary carcinoma and in 31 patients with benign mammary lesions serum immunoreactive calcitonin (iCT) was measured and correlated with the pathological and anatomical diagnosis as well as with the clinical stage of the disease. Moreover, 50 carcinomas and 27 benign mammary lesions were examined for extractable iCT and compared with normal adjacent tissue. Serum iCT measurements in patients with benign mammary lesions showed that only one on a single occasion had a border line level of calcitonin (0.50 μg/l) while the rest had hormone concentrations less than 0.30 μg/l (normal range 0.05-0.5 μg/l). The patients with mammary carcinomas were classified from stage I to stage IV according to clinical and histological criteria. Serum iCT was within normal range in all patients, and no differences were found between the different stages. Many of the benign and malignant mammary tumours contained extractable iCT. Although a great variation was present in the concentration of tissue iCT within the same group of patients, the benign or malignant tumours did not contain more immunoreactive hormone than the adjacent normal tissue. The influence of anaesthesia and surgical stress on serum iCT was then tested in human and in Wag/Rij rats. Anaesthesia in combination with surgery increased serum concentration of iCT in both humans and rats, but anaesthesia alone had no effect. In conclusion, both benign and malignant mammary tumours contained extractable iCT, but there was no difference between neoplastic tissue and the normal adjacent gland tissue. There was also no increased concentration of serum iCT in patients with mammary carcinoma, even with advanced disease. However, rats as well as humans when subjected to surgical stress, frequently demonstrated an increased concentration of serum iCT.