Mineral metabolism abnormalities in patients with prostate cancer: a systematic case controlled study

Purpose Prostate cancer is the most common tumor in men. To the best of our knowledge a systematic assessment of bone and mineral abnormalities has not been performed in prostatic cancer patients consecutively enrolled. Methods This study was therefore carried out to investigate changes of skeletal and mineral metabolism in patients with prostate cancer ( n = 69). A population of patients with cancer of various origin was also investigated as a control group ( n = 53), since a comparison with non-prostate cancer patients has not been previously reported. Results In the prostatic cancer group, one patient had extremely high values of C-terminal Fibroblast Growth Factor 23, low values of tubular reabsorption of phosphate and very high values of bone alkaline phosphatase, suggesting the diagnosis of oncogenic osteomalacia. We found nine patients with primary hyperparathyroidism in the group of prostate cancer vs. only one in cancer patients group ( p