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A patient with poorly differentiated monocytic malignancy had extensive lytic lesions of bone and hypercalcemia. The patient's bone margins showed little evidence of osteoclast activity. Serum parathormone concentrations were slightly increased relative to the degree of hypercalcemia, consistent with impaired renal function. Serum concentrations of the relevant prostaglandins were normal. Supernatant medium from cultured tumor cells caused prominent bone resorption in vitro. The studies on this patient provide evidence that malignant cells of the monocyte-macrophage line are capable of direct bone resorption.

Twenty-seven primary non-small cell (NSC) lung cancers were analyzed for alterations of protooncogenes by DNA hybridization techniques. Abnormalities were found in 56% of tumors including ten of 16 adenocarcinomas, three of nine squamous cell cancers and two of two larger cell cancers. Five protooncogenes were found to be commonly altered in tumors at frequencies between 12% and 60%. These were c-myc, c-myb, c-ras-Ha, c-erbB-1 and c-erb-B-2. Alterations in c-erbB-1 and c-erbB-2 correlated with histologic type of tumor and were more common in advanced cancers. Allelic deletions of c-ras-Ha or c-myb were frequently observed in primary tumors which recurred or progressed after surgery (five of six). Analysis of protooncogenes may provide insights into the pathogenesis of lung cancer and may aid in predicting clinical behavior.