Background: Tamoxifen and toremifene have been used in patients with advanced desmoid tumours with response rates of 51%. Method:We developed an experimental model of desmoid tumour cells in tissue culture to study their effect. Four cell lines were established in tissue culture. All native and corresponding cultured tumours were oestrogen receptor negative. Tumour I was from a 22 year old with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and recurrent abdominal wall desmoid turnours. She remains disease free on tamoxifen 4 years following surgery. Both her mother and sister also have shown regression of their FAPassociated desmoid tumours at the menopause and on tamoxifen, respectively. We assessed the effect of tamoxifen on desmoid tumours in tissue culture at 780 ng/mL. The results were assessed by cell density counting. Results: Tumours 1 and 2 have responded with an approximately 50% reduction in growth to tamoxifen at 780 ng/mL. Conclusions: This apparent growth inhibitory effect of tamoxifen on two desmoid tumour cell lines appears to be independent of oestrogen and correlates with the in vivo effect of tamoxifen on three desmoid tumours in an FAP family.

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1. The total serum thyroxine, tri-iodothyronine resin uptake, total plasma protein concentration and the free thyroxine index (FTI) were determined repeatedly, at 07.15, 13.00 and 22.30 hours over 4 days, in six healthy young men. 2. There was a significant diurnal variation in the total serum thyroxine concentration but this reflected changes in the binding capacity of serum proteins and in the total plasma protein concentration which could be explained by changes of posture. The FTI, and presumably therefore the free thyroxine concentration, varied very little with the time of day. 3. The FTI varied significantly from day to day in three of the six subjects, presumably as a result of changes in thyroxine secretion because the serum binding capacity did not vary. 4. The subjects' sleep at night was assessed by electro-encephalogram. In days when the FTI was highest for a particular subject his sleep was more fragmented by spontaneous awakenings, the amount of rapid-eye-movement sleep was reduced and that of delta-wave sleep was increased, implying that variations in thyroid function over a period of a few days in healthy subjects can be of physiological significance. The cause of these variations is uncertain.

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