[Effect of calcitonin on body pains caused by bone metastases of urogenital cancer].

Calcitonin obtained from eels (ell-CT) was given to 14 patients who had developed bony pains due to bone metastases of malignant tumors and who did not respond to 12 various analgesics. The patients consisted of 12 males and 2 females, with a mean age of sixty-five. Eel-CT (Elcitonin) was injected intramuscularly to each patient at a dose of 40 units twice daily. Other analgesics were assessed to be ineffective at the time of CT administration and they were not given consideration in the evaluation. For the assessment of drug effect, a pain score was prepared. Eel-CT was markedly effective in 3 patients, effective in 8 patients, and ineffective in 2 patients. Eel-CT had a better effect on prostatic cancer than any other cancer. The analgesic effect was observed in the first week of drug administration at around a total dose of 1,000 units. Although the pain tended to appear at regions on which the body weight was liable to rest, the analgesic effect was seen irrespective of the side of pain. Since serum calcium, phosphate, parathyroid hormone (PTH), CT levels and bone scintigrams between pre-and post-CT administration did not differ, the analgesic mode of action of CT is not supposed to be related to inhibition of bone absorption nor bone formation. The therapeutic effect hardly suggests any direct action of CT on the tumor.