[Correction of hypophyseal-adrenal system function in esophageal and stomach cancer patients undergoing combined and surgical treatments].

The paper presents the data on marked dysfunction of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal system in patients with esophageal and gastric cancer. Patients revealed lowered levels of 11-hydroxycorticosteroids in blood plasma and 17-corticosteroids and 17-glucocorticosteroids in diurnal urine. It was matched by an elevated threshold of hypothalamic sensitivity to inhibition by glucocorticosteroids. Treatment for these disturbances which brought the function of this system to normal had a beneficial effect on the secretion and excretion of corticosteroids in the course of combined therapy and surgery and was followed by a significant decrease in hemodynamic complication incidence. The favorable clinical effect was in correlation with the decrease in hypothalamic resistance to the inhibitory effect of glucocorticoids.