Relations of Calcitonin and Gastrin in the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome and Medullary Carcinoma of the Thyroid

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Abstract
Fasting plasma immunoreactive human calcitonin and fasting serum immunoreactive human gastrin were measured by specific radioimmunoassays in 16 healthy persons, eight patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome who had no clinical thyroid disease, and seven patients with medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. All patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome had high serum immunoreactive gastrin (p < 0.01), and all with thyroid carcinoma had high plasma immunoreactive calcitonin (p < 0.025). Mean plasma immunoreactive calcitonin was increased significantly in patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (p<0.005). Mean serum immunoreactive gastrin was decreased significantly in the patients with carcinoma(p < 0.01). One patient with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome and high plasma immunoreactive calcitonin had no post-mortem histologic evidence of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. These observations suggest a possible interhormonal relation between calcitonin and gastrin in man, calcitonin inhibiting gastrin secretion and, conversely, gastrin stimulating calcitonin secretion.