Humoral hypercalcaemia in a patient with renal-cell carcinoma.

In a patient with hypercalcaemia secondary to a renal-cell carcinoma, a concentration gradient of bioactivity was detected between the tumour effluent vein and the peripheral venous blood that was capable of stimulating adenylate cyclase in bone cells. Immuno-reactive PTH was undetectable in the tumour effluent and in the peripheral blood. It is concluded that a non-parathyroid humoral factor whose action involved cyclic AMP stimulation was responsible for the hypercalcaemia.