The introduction of new methods for studying the plasma state, renal
handling, and kinetics of calcium and inorganic phosphate has rendered
possible a more efficient and appropriate approach to the problems of
bone-tissue metabolism and more ade- quate investigation of the
pathogenesis of its miscellaneous abnormalities. Used to study the
metabolism of bone mineral in osteoporosis, hypo- and hyperparathy-
roidism, and other metabolic bone diseases, the new methods have given
much valuable information. In malignancy they also promise to supplement
the scantiness of the existing information better than the routine
examination procedures, yet they have been used far more rarely in this
field. The material presented in this work represents an attempt to
marshal the facts and to answer, by the aid of recent techniques, some
still open problems of bone- mineral metabolism in patients with cancer.
Since the new techniques involve an entirely new approach, the first two
chapters are devoted to it and details of these techniques are presented
in the third chapter. I realize the shortcomings of this work, but the
never-ending and continuously increasing search for new discoveries
makes some data obsolete at the moment of their presentation.
Nevertheless, I hope that this work will give some information which
will be useful in interpreting disturbances of bone-tissue metabolism in
patients, both without any evidence of bone secondaries, and with
widespread osseous metas- tases.