The medroxyprogesterone acetate serum level following various medroxyprogesterone acetate dose schedules in gynecologic oncology

: Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) is used as an adjuvant hormonal medication in patients with different kinds of carcinomas. Since adequate serum levels are thought to be essential we determined the individual, postoperative MPA levels in 36 patients with endometrial carcinoma over a period of 12 weeks. The patients received either an oral dose of 3 X 100 mg MPA or a weekly changing scheme with 2 X 10 mg Tamoxifen and 3 X 100 mg MPA. An additional small group of 4 patients with ovarian carcinoma was enrolled receiving an oral dose of 1000 mg MPA daily. The peripheral serum levels of MPA exhibit enormous inter- and intraindividuell variations and only the high dosage schemes yield levels above 90 ng/ml which are claimed necessary by some authors. The cortisol concentration measured at the same time were within the normal range and did not correlate with the MPA values.