Androgen influence on exocrine pancreatic cancer.

Since the discovery of the first gastrointestinal hormones it has been intriguing to think that these defined chemical messengers may also influence the growth of tumors. Today, treatment with sex-hormones is well documented--and used in clinical practice--in prostatic (1,2), breast (3), endometrial, and ovarian carcinoma (4). Hormonal therapy (progesterone) has also been tried with some success in renal carcinoma (5,6). Nevertheless, cancers of the gastrointestinal tract--colorectal, liver, stomach, and pancreatic, carcinoma, which constitute 25 percent of all malignancies in Scandinavia--are only treated by other means, mainly surgery, although there is substantial evidence today that these tumors can also be influenced by hormones.