Parathyroid Tumors

Cancer (Oncology)

Parathyroid cancer occurs on the parathyroid glands, located in the neck, usually behind the thyroid gland. The four tiny (the size of a grain of rice), mustard-yellow parathyroid glands control the body's bone and blood calcium levels. Even though they are located near the thyroid gland, the two glands are not related.

Cancers of the parathyroid are exceedingly rare. Problems with the parathyroid are usually caused by parathyroid tumors, which disrupt the body's calcium levels. Typically, a tumor will cause one of the parathyroid glands to become enlarged and produce too much parathyroid hormone (PTH), which in turn raises blood calcium levels above normal, this is referred to as hypercalcemia. When high blood calcium levels are caused by overactivity of the parathyroid gland we call this hyperparathyroidism. Hyperparathyroidism can cause osteoporosis and many other serious problems. If left untreated, the high calcium levels caused by parathyroid tumors increase the risk of damage to other organ systems such as the kidney, bone, heart and blood vessels.

Symptoms

The symptoms of a parathyroid tumor may include general achiness, depression, fatigue, abdominal pain (sometimes due to kidney stones), nausea, vomiting, excessive urination, confusion and muscle weakness.

Treatment

Parathyroid tumors are usually removed by surgery, sometimes accompanied by radiation. It is rare for more than one gland to be affected and people can live with far fewer than four glands. Traditional surgery is challenging because of the location and size of the parathyroid glands. However, proper surgical treatment of parathyroid tumors will result in cure for greater than 95 percent of patients with the common benign form of the disease. For the rare parathyroid cancer wide surgical resection followed by radiotherapy can be very effective.