ABSTRACT
Apparently, more than 40% of all newly diagnosed female cancers are hormone dependent. In addition to endometrial cancer, these mainly are breast and ovarian cancer. What is our current view on the way hormones influence the oncogenetic cascade? This cascade of carcinogenesis is related to an accumulation of intracellular genetic mutations as well as epigenetic abnormalities in controlled gene expression. Hormones can indeed influence the development of various cancers, as demonstrated by clinical experiments and epidemiology. Hypotheses have been formulated to show a relation of specific female reproductive tumors to hormonal signaling; the same holds true for the prostate gland of men. Parturition has been shown to be related to the morphogenesis of ovarian cancer. Breast cancer, with its incremental incidence, is epidemiologically associated with family history as well as reproductive and environmental factors. Early menarche, late menopause and nulliparity have been defined as risk factors; loss of ovarian function at younger age appears to be protective as does the first full-term pregnancy at a younger age. Primiparity beyond 35 years of age certainly increases breast cancer risk. Such epidemiologic information, very often of borderline signifi cance, requires intensified research in order to provide a basis for biological plausibility of the importance of any of those inferred epidemiological impacts.
