HORMONES IN MALE-PATIENTS WITH ADVANCED ESOPHAGEAL-CARCINOMA

Hormones are believed to play a dominant role as promoters in the grow th and development of hormone-dependent cancers. Much less is known ab out the circulating hormones in male patients with oesophageal cancer. This lack of attention led us to evaluate the role of peptide and ste roid hormones (by RIA) in male patients with oesophageal cancer (n=49) . Blood samples of patients were collected pretherapeutically and data was compared with age matched controls (n=25). In this retrospective study, significantly high levels of FSH (P<0.02), LH (P<0.001) and pro lactin (P<0.001) were observed with concomitant low levels of estradio l (P<0.001), DHEA-S (P<0.02) and testosterone (P<0.001) in patients wh en compared with respective controls. The patients when grouped accord ing to anatomical site and histological type of the tumor, intergroup variation was not observed in these hormones. From our, study, it seem s that hormonal imbalance or altered ratio of peptide and steroid horm ones might be playing a significant role in the development and/or pro gression of oesophageal carcinoma in men.