ABSTRACT
A testosterone test using two different dosages was carried out simultaneously in 7 women suffering from metastasizing carcinoma of the mamma and in 3 normal women. In each case the urinary steroids were estimated before the beginning of the test and after administration of 50 mg and 100 mg of testosterone respectively; the interval between the single estimations being one week. The use of fractionated hydrolysis enabled a mild fission of the conjugates and the classification of the products into free steroids, glucuronosides, sulfates and unknown conjugates. The 17-ketosteroids and the testosterone were estimated by means of Girard's separation and adsorption chromatography.
During the loading test with testosterone different behaviours became evident, which had not been realized before. The behaviour of the 17-ketosteroids rendered possible the differentiation of normal women from patients with cancer of the breast yet without hepatic insufficiency, and furthermore of these latter ones from those with a liver damage in addition to the cancer of the breast. The glucuronosides of the 17-ketosteroids are only depressed, when there exists a pronounced damage of the liver; the loading test making possible an extension of the range of recognizable damages. Furthermore, the behaviour of dehydroepiandrosterone (II/III), of androsterone (IV), and of aetiocholanolone (V) lends itself to this differentiation. In advanced cancer of the breast the values of II/III are invariably low, whilst IV and V often increase temporarily. The relation of IV to V may be altered in a different way. The excretion of not transformed testosterone is less in patients than in normal women and especially low in patients with liver damage.
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