[Calcitonin in bone-metastasizing breast carcinoma. Results of a pilot study]

48 patients with metastatic breast cancer and extensive bone involvement were treated with salm-calcitonin and polychemo-therapy or hormonal treatment. They were compared with a control group of 73 patients without calcitonin therapy. One third of the patients from the calcitonin group referred pain relief which was obviously independent from the therapy effects of the polychemo or hormonal treatment. Since only subjective criteria for sceletal pains were used and no therapy arm with calcitonin alone was studied, the results of our study have to be critically analyzed together with other reports about calcitonin and bone metastases in the literature.