ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with hormones individually, but it should be remembered that hormones may act synergistically or antagonistically. There is a large body of literature describing the close involvement of hormones in the development of the normal breast. Both protein and steroid hormones play an intimate role in the growth and lactational activity of this organ. The average excretion of etiocholanolone was subnormal in women who subsequently developed breast cancer between 35 and 55 years of age. The abnormality was independent of the time before diagnosis and was not a late event in the history of the disease since subnormal excretion was observed up to 9 years before clinical diagnosis. In 1964, Bulbrook et al. reported their results on an 8-year follow-up of women whose discriminant function had been measured after mastectomy. This survey showed that approximately half the patients with early breast cancer had negative discriminants when measured 10 days after mastectomy.
