Hypercalcemia as Initial Presentation of Metastatic Adenocarcinoma of Gastric Origin: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Hypercalcemia of malignancy due to metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma is extremely rare; in fact, to the best of our knowledge, only three case reports of hypercalcemia associated with metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma have been published in the literature to date. Herein, we report a rare case involving a 61-year-old African-American female who had hypercalcemia at initial presentation and who was later diagnosed with poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma with extensive liver metastases, without bone involvement. She was found to have elevated parathyroid hormone-related peptide and normal parathyroid hormone levels. Despite aggressive treatment, she died within a few months of diagnosis.