Hormonal Influences on the Growth and Progression of Cancer

Abstract

THE inter-relation between the sex hormones and certain forms of cancer was first appreciated by Schinzinger¹ in 1889, and demonstrated in man by Sir George Beatson,² who carried out ovariectomy for carcinoma of the breast and obtained a remission of the disease. This work was soon confirmed by others,³ and by 1905, Lett⁴ was able to report a series of 99 cases of inoperable carcinoma of the breast treated by oöphorectomy. In this series he observed that a good clinical response occurred in 41 per cent of the patients younger than fifty years of age but in only 23 per . . .