Simple Blood Test Used as Tool for Early Cancer Diagnosis

High levels of calcium in blood, a condition known as hypercalcemia, can be used by general practitioners and physicians as an early indication of certain types of cancer.

A simple blood test could identify those with hypercalcemia, which is the most common metabolic disorder associated with cancer, occurring in 10% to 20 % of people with cancer and can often predate the diagnosis of cancer in primary care.


Scientists at the University of Bristol (UK) carried out a retrospective cohort study of patients aged greater than or equal to 40 years who were age- and sex-matched controls to case patients with 1 of 13 common cancers. The data included all diagnoses and laboratory investigations from primary care. They analyzed the electronic records of 54,000 patients who had elevated levels of calcium and looked at how many of them went on to receive a cancer diagnosis.

Analysis of the data from 54,000 patients found that in men, even mild hypercalcemia of 2.6 to 2.8 mmol/L conferred a risk of cancer in one year of 11%. If the calcium was greater than 2.8 mmol/L, the risk increased to 28%. In women, the risks were much less, with the corresponding figures being 4.1% and 8.7%. In men, 81% of the cancer associated with hypercalcemia was caused by lung, prostate, myeloma, colorectal, and other hematological cancers, but in women, cancer was much less common. There was no difference between the calcium levels in the different cancers

Fergus Hamilton, PhD, the senior author of the study said, “All previous studies on hypercalcemia and cancer had been carried out with patients who had already been diagnosed with cancer, hypercalcemia was seen as a late effect of the cancer. We wanted to look at the issue from a different perspective and find out if high calcium levels in blood could be used as an early indicator of cancer and therefore in the diagnosis of cancer. We were surprised by the gender difference. There are a number of possible explanations for this but we think it might be because women are much more likely to have hyperparathyroidism, another cause of hypercalcaemia. Men rarely get this condition, so their hypercalcemia is more likely to be due to cancer.” The study was published on August 5, 2014, in the British Journal of Cancer.

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University of Bristol