Werner syndrome is characterized by the premature appearance of features associated with normal aging and cancer predisposition. Individuals with Werner syndrome develop normally until the end of the first decade. The first sign is the lack of a growth spurt during the early teen years. Early findings (usually observed in the 20s) include loss and graying of hair, hoarseness, and scleroderma-like skin changes, followed by bilateral ocular cataracts, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypogonadism, skin ulcers, and osteoporosis in the 30s. Myocardial infarction and cancer are the most common causes of death; the mean age of death in individuals with Werner syndrome is 54 years.

Hyperphosphatemic familial tumoral calcinosis (HFTC) is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder characterized by the progressive deposition of basic calcium phosphate crystals in periarticular spaces, soft tissues, and sometimes bone (Chefetz et al., 2005). The biochemical hallmark of tumoral calcinosis is hyperphosphatemia caused by increased renal absorption of phosphate due to loss-of-function mutations in the FGF23 (605380) or GALNT3 (601756) gene. The term 'hyperostosis-hyperphosphatemia syndrome' (HHS) is sometimes used when the disorder is characterized by involvement of the long bones associated with the radiographic findings of periosteal reaction and cortical hyperostosis. Although some have distinguished HHS from FTC by the presence of bone involvement and the absence of skin involvement (Frishberg et al., 2005), Ichikawa et al. (2010) concluded that the 2 entities represent a continuous spectrum of the same disease, best described as familial hyperphosphatemic tumoral calcinosis. HFTC is considered to be the clinical converse of autosomal dominant hypophosphatemic rickets (ADHR; 193100), an allelic disorder caused by gain-of-function mutations in the FGF23 gene and associated with hypophosphatemia and decreased renal phosphate absorption (Chefetz et al., 2005; Ichikawa et al., 2005). For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of HFTC, see 211900.