Squamous Cell Lung Carcinoma's Paraneoplastic Syndrome is HY

A 56 year old male has a 65 pack year smoking hx. He is seeing you today about recently having coughed up blood. He knows that this might be lung cancer and asks you for your expert opinion. Labs show hypercalcemia. Bronchoscopy reveals cells with atypical mitosis with some nuclei containing 3 to 4 metaphases.
The question is, it squamous or small cell cancer?


You really have to remember that squamous cell carcinoma releases PTHrP causing hypercalcemia.

Squamous Cell = Hypercalcemia

And since small and squamous both start with the letter S, I often mistake the 2 so here is what I made up to remember calcium when I hear squamous cell.

Calcium’s abbreviation is Ca²⁺ which looks like Calcium squared (Calcium²).

Squamous ≈ squared. And there you have it.