HORMONE-METABOLIC STATUS IN MODERATELY SMOKING BREAST-CANCER PATIENTS

One hundred and eighteen primary breast cancer (BC) patients, 35 of wh om were smokers, in clinical stages I-II of the disease were examined. In order to investigate whether smoking changes endocrine function in BC patients, some indices of the hormone-metabolic status of smoking and non-smoking patients of reproductive and menopausal age were compa red. It was found that in smokers with BC there was a decline in body weight and body fat content, a lack of lean body mass accumulation alo ng with body mass increase, a tendency to hypotriglyceridemia and hypo insulinemia, accelerated development of the upper type of body fat dis tribution with ageing, intensified gonadotropin secretion, shifts in s teroidogenesis and SHBG level and elevated catecholamine execretion. I t is suggested that a possible relation between hormone-mediated effec ts inherent to smoking and the mechanisms promoting genotoxic type of hormonal carcinogenesis and the factors of breast cancer prognosis can not be excluded.