I just discovered this site and it looks very informative. I had surgery for an aggressive stage IVa tumor in 12/2005. It was a modified left radical neck dissection where they took out part of my jaw bone and transplanted fibula from the leg. I had Radiation post surgery, but no Chemo. I also had a (right) neck dissection a few months later following suspecious FNA biopsy results for a lump - That was fine, no cancer. I'm working FT and doing well, other than fatigue. Recent blood test indicates elevated calcium (11.4)-Hypercalcemia. My Oncologist referred to Endocrinoligist, who I will see in two weeks. When I research Hypercalcamia, it does not look like this is good news. But, I cannot find much information on elevated calcium levels and what this could mean for somone with my history and would appreciate any honest, direct feedback anyone may have. Thank you!

Welcome Steve.
Yes, this is a very useful forum. There are many who have your symptoms & treatment. Number one is stay positive. Also if you open your profile, at the bottom type in your signature. That way all can know your Dx & Tx and help you. Any questions, fire away. Use the faq at the top of the page to help you with the website.You may want to post in the "introduce yourself" forum to let all know we have a new member. Surf the site to get familiar with it. Best Wishes, PeteyB

I did a MedLine search for this, as it is not that common in head and neck cancer patients. I found numerous articles and the most through I think is this one http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic260.htm

When you read it you will see that while a possible pronosticator of a malignancy, there are a variety of other less dire things that can bring it about. Differential diagnosis, which brings an answer by exploring all the possible signs and symptoms, will point a diagnostitian in one direction or the other. While a lot of the details that come to mind after researching this are not included in your original post, I think that the thing most telling to me from what is there, is that your oncologist (who would certainly be doing other diagnostic tests on you to look for second primary maliganancies in your lungs etc. if he thought this a serious concern) is sending you to an endocrinologist instead. A hyperthyroid situation would be in that person's knowledge base, and it is perhaps your oncologist's perception from your most recent exams and diagnostic tests (you don't mention what you have been through) lead him to believe that malignancy is NOT the most likely differential diagnosis. Like all of us that are survivors, when some part of our blood work, or a small spot on one of our scans appears, the survivor's mind immediatley goes to the C word. Welcome to the world of survivorship. I do this when I get a toothache or more recently when a small dark spot appeared on a scan that included my liver, which turned out to be nothing more than a grouping of capillaries, or a hemangioma. I would put a call in to your oncologist and ask him what his thinking/reasoning is; what he thinks the possible differential diagnosis list might have on it. He may have ruled out the really bad, and is just ensuring that the other possible causes are dealt with properly.

I had slightly elevated calcium (11.0)a routine blood test that was done right before I was diagnosed with two early stage cancers (tomngue cancer and breast cancer). My oncologist seemed to feel it was not related to the cancers, which by all indications hadn't spread to any lymph nodes and would be unlikely to have spread to the bones. A CT scan of my liver done during staging also showed some large (probably calcium) kidney stones in one of my ureters--too large to pass into the kidney (thank goodness) and not causing any symptoms. They are still there actually. So probably my body was having some trouble processing calcium normally and it was related to the parathyroid. Whatever it was, I had my calcium levels tested again at a checkup in January and they are now normal. And my intially high level was pretty close to yours.

I can understand why reading the info. on this scared you, but I wouldn't assume this means you have bone metastases. But Biran is right that you should ask your oncologist.

Nelie

By the way, my most recent calcium level from the test in Jan. was 9.9 so really I just went down about 1 point, but it puts me within normal limits.

Thank you both. The article you refered me to was helpful. I'm learning to be a bit more aggressive in my research and questions for my MD's. It has been 6 months since may last CT, PET and Xray, so I'll have more soon. All tests have been clear so far except for the Hypercalcemia. When I find out what this elevated calcium is all about, I'll post again and maybe it will be beneficial to someone else.