Management of malignant hypercalcaemia in the palliative population

Hypercalcaemia is the commonest life-threatening metabolic disorder in malignancy and affects up to 10€“30% of cancer patients.1 It can occur at any time during the natural course of the disease but is most common in its terminal stages.2 Unfortunately, malignancy-related hypercalcaemia has a poor prognosis with 80% of patients dying within a year and a median survival of three to four months. It occurs most frequently in myeloma, breast, renal, lung, lymphoma and thyroid cancer but can also occur with a range of others including gynaecological and head and neck cancers.1 It develops when calcium entry in the extracellular fluid