SUPPRESSION OF PITUITARY GONADOTROPINS BY 17-ETHYNYL-19-NORTESTOSTERONE IN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC CARCINOMA OF THE BREAST

Abstract

17-Ethynyl-19-nortcstosterone was found to be effective in suppressing pituitary gonadotropin excretion in 4 cases of metastatic mammary carcinoma. The mean 24-hour excretion of gonadotropin fell from 34.5 μg. to 7.7 μg. by the fourth week and to 5.7 μg. by the sixth week of injection, and remained low when the steroid was administered by mouth for an additional sixteen weeks. It is suggested that the effect might result from the weak estrogenic activity of the compound. THERE is evidence that certain types of mammary carcinoma are stimulated by estrogens (1). A compound suppressing the gonadotropin output of the pituitary might obviate the use of oophorectomy and hypophysectomy in such cases. A report is given of the urinary gonadotropin excretion in 5 cases of metastatic carcinoma of the breast treated with 17-ethynyl-19-nortestosterone over a period of six months. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two complete 24-hour specimens of urine were collected from each subject prior to treatment. After treatment had commenced, single 24-hour samples were collected at approximately weekly intervals for a period of six weeks. During this time each of the 5 patients received weekly injections of 100 mg. of 17-ethynyl-19-nortestosterone enanthatc. Injections then ceased and the treatment was continued by oral administration of 15 mg. of 17-ethylnyl-19-nortestosterone acetate daily for a further sixteen weeks. Urine samples were collected from the subjects in only the fifteenth and sixteenth weeks of the oral treatment.