Alcohol-Stimulated Calcitonin Release in Medullary Carcinoma of the Thyroid

Calcitonin Levels Do Not Decrease with Weaning in Chronic Alcoholism

“…These results have been confirmed in humans (healthy, in dialysis, and with MTC) after oral alcohol consumption (25)(26)(27). Therefore we can suppose that, if acute alcohol intake can increase blood CT levels, chronic consumption would a fortiori reinforce this effect, perhaps inducing C-cell hyperplasia.…”

“…Indeed increased CT levels have been reported in physiological forms of C-cell hyperplasia more often encountered in male subjects over 50 years old (10,11), in renal insufficiency (12), nonmedullary thyroid tumors and autoimmune thyroiditis (13)(14)(15), sepsis (16), hypergastrinemia (17), hypercalcemia (18), pseudohypoparathyroidism type IA (19), omeprazole treatment (20,21), and measurement artifacts, especially induced by heterophilic antibodies (22,23). Also, alcohol (24)(25)(26)(27) and tobacco (28,29) may increase CT but this assertion is mainly based on the acute affect of the drug in animals and humans. Therefore we assessed basal CT levels in a population of patients with chronic alcoholism before and after weaning, in order to investigate the effect of chronic alcoholic intoxication on plasma CT levels.…”

Whisky: A New Provocative Test for Calcitonin Secretion

“…Six females (aged 10-68 years) and five males (23-51 years) (including the patient pre¬ viously studied by Cohen et al 1973) with sporadic medullary carcinoma and three females (aged 21-66 years) with histologically proven familial chromaffinomatosis, were included in the pilot study.…”

Medullary Carcinoma of the Thyroid Gland

“…Although elevated plasma levels of calcitonin have been demonstrated in a number of patients (Table II), these estimations were all carried out after the diagnosis of medullary carcinoma had been made histologically. As indicated in Table II In recent years, however, it has been shown that the hyperplastic or neoplastic C-cell mass can be provoked or stimulated into producing elevated plasma levels of calcitonin by a number of different agents (Hennessy et al, 1973;Cohen et al, 1973). Calcium, pentagastrin, alcohol and glucagon are among those which have been utilised in different centres and with varying degrees of efficacy in calcitonin provocation tests (Hennessy et al, 1974;Wells et al, 1975;Sizemore and Go, 1975;Dymling et al, 1976).…”