An essay on the nature of hormonal codes involved in the genesis of human neoplasias (review).

We have long been occupied with the motion that the steroid generating system plays a key role as the intermediator between the outer environment and the vulnerable host in the course of carcinogenesis. The purpose of this review article is to rebuild the concept of hormonal carcinogenesis in the light of the developmental flow of endocrinological oncology. Our discussion places much emphasis on the investigation of a number of puzzles surrounding the hormonal signal transmission system in humans as well as in non-human animals. The usefulness of the steroid-responsive enhancer gene/protooncogene complex model was confirmed in the construction of a unifying theory involving chemical carcinogenesis, viral carcinogenesis and hormonal carcinogenesis. We present evidence to suggest that our unifying theory surrounding the hormone-gene relationship is applicable to the genesis of human neoplasia in general, and that members of the human cancer family are interfering with each other in their risk variations in time and space. The nature of steroid substance as the signal transmitter is discussed from the point of view of paleontological endocrinology.