The relation between the aging of the steroid generating system and the geneses of cancers of the stomach, the breast and the uterine cervix

The purpose of the present study is to test the validity of the steroid carcinogenesis hypothesis in humans by investigating the problem whether or not a cancer-specific change of the hormonal milieu emerges at a specified stage of life where the growth rate of cancer risk is at its zenith. A case-control study of 14 urinary steroid excretions was conducted for each of 3 human neoplasias. The identification and the size (in parenthesis) of the population units used in this study were,given as follows: a) the male gastric cancer group (421); b) the male control group (104); c) the female breast cancer group (245); d) the cervical cancer group (345); e) the female control group (127). Two kinds of steroid parameters were employed for the statistical analysis of hormonal data: a) the logarithm of a steroid excretion figure (mu g/day), as expressed by log x; b) the logarithm of a relative weight of a given steroid to tetrahydrocortisol, as expressed by log x/THF. The case-control difference for each parameter was expressed in terms of a t-value of Student's t-test. The steroid deviation profile was prepared for each neoplasia and for each of the log x data set and the log x/THF data set. The results obtained are as follows: a) the 2 steroid parameters (log x and log x/THF) for each of 14 urinary steroids were both subject to change with the progress of host age. The rate of age-dependent change was different for each steroid parameter and for each population unit. b) The above differential age dependency of the steroid parameters gave rise to a continual transition of the steroid deviation profile in the course of aging. c) The hormonal traits of male gastric cancer, female breast cancer and cervical cancer were described each as a complex of androgen depression and glucocorticoid stimulation (male gastric cancer), a sequential emergence of premenopausal progestin depression and postmenopausal predominance of glucocorticoid over androgen (female breast cancer), and a complex of androgen-glucocorticoid depression over progestin (cervical cancer). d) The emergence of the above cancer-specific steroid disorders chronologically coincided with the quasiexponential growth phase of cancer risk (and slow growth phase of cancer risk in postmenopausal breast cancer). e) The usefulness of the log x/THF type deviation profile for the assessment of the hormonal milieu of the host was verified by both theoretical approach to the problem and its application to the real data of a case-control study. f) The age dependent decline of androgens was generally much faster in their progressions than that of glucocorticoids - a finding to suggest the possibility that the production of a cancer-specific steroid deviation profile might have taken the form of the stress shift of Hans Selye, since both phenomena share depletion of gonadal steroids relative to glucocorticoid in common. The etiological relevancy of the 3 cancer-specific steroid changes to the geneses of 3 cancers:was discussed in the light of the experimental pathology studies in our laboratory as well as in other laboratories.