Hormonal Status of Breast Cancer. III. Further Analysis of Ovarian-Adrenal Dysfunction 2

Abstract

Detailed studies of urinary steroids in patients with breast cancer and normal controls have shown that abnormal aging processes and depressed corpus luteum function were associated with the presence of this form of cancer. The ratio of androsterone to tetrahydrocortisol, an index of the aging process, was significantly lower in a breast cancer group than in a normal group at both premenopausal and postmenopausal stages. In premenopausal women, the ratio decreased in the order of rural controls, urban controls, and patients with breast cancer. It was indicated that the ratio may serve as a measure of risk for breast cancer. Aside from the general depression of menstruation-dependent steroids, breast cancer was associated with disproportionately low excretions of prenanediol and pregnanetriol within the menstruation-dependent steroid family. The notion that this finding reflects the delay or complete failure of ovulation was supported by a reduced parturition rate of our patients with breast cancer as compared with that of our normal controls. The physiologic significance of steroidal disturbances was considered in relation to the genesis of breast cancer.

Corpus luteum dysfunction and the epidemiology of breast cancer: A reconsideration

“…However, Kodama et al did find evidence for disturbed corpus luteum function in premenopausal breast cancer patients based upon analyses of urinary steroids collected during the luteal phase preoperatively (58).…”

Urinary androgen and 17-hydroxylated corticosteroid metabolites and their relation to recurrence rates in early breast cancer

“…Evidence has also been presented indicating that urinary androsterone (A) and tetrahydrocortisol (THF) may also be involved in the etiology of breast cancer (3).…”