Some hormonal and genetic aspects of human breast cancer-a review.

This review of the literature attempts to correlate some of the studies of the ability of breast tumor tissue to synthesize and metabolize hormones in vivo and in vitro. By combining the values of 17 hydroxycorticosteroids (OHCS) relative to etiocholanolone discriminant functions are determined and used to predict the subsequent course of cancers after radical mastectomy. High etiocholanolone is a positive discriminant. Patients with a positive discriminant had better response to surgery than those with a negative discriminant. Other reports indicate the relationship between urinary androgen metabolite values and response to endocrine surgery. Additional research is needed to determine the relationship between recurrence rates of patients who have testosterone treatment after radical mastectomy with those without testosterone treatment. An attempt is made to show the correlations between hormonal imbalances and development of breast cancer. Some reports correlating frequency of positive sex chromatin in breast tumor tissue may have prognostic value.