Osteocalcin: a valuable bone metastasis marker

Osteocalcin (BCG) in an osteoblast product which reflects the bone formation rate. It could be a valuable bone metastasis marker. To investigate this, we measured serum osteocalcin levels by using radioimmunoassay method in 11 healthy subjects and in 79 cancer patients. The cancer patients consisted of 36 non-metastatic, 29 with only bone metastasis and 14 with extraosseous metastases. Significance was found only between bone metastatic patients and non-metastatic patients in both sexes (p. 0.05). There was no significance between non-metastatic patients and patients with other than bone metastases. This study shows that osteocalcin measurements reflect bone formation rates in bone metastasis and could be used as a bone metastasis marker in suspicious cases.