Olive W. Smith

Urinary Estrogens and Related Compounds in Postmenopausal Women With Mammary Cancer Effect of Cortisone Treatment

Summary In 7 postmenopausal women with mammary cancer the urinary output of estrogens and related compounds has been studied under various conditions and compared with that of 8 normal postmenopausal women. Five of the 7 cancer patients were found to excrete excessive amounts. In these 5, when not receiving cortisone, the output of estrogens excreted as such averaged nearly 5 times the mean normal, and that of compounds estrogenic after Zn-HCl hydrolysis averaged 16 times the mean normal. Cortisone therapy markedly lowered these titres and reduced them to normal levels in 3 of 4 patients so treated. Except when under cortisone treatment the titres of estrogen and related compounds rose with advancing disease. The surgical removal of X-rayed ovaries lowered the titres of estrogens excreted as such but not of the unknown compounds rendered estrogenic by Zn-HCl treatment.

The effect of clomid on estrogen secretion and metabolism

I N D u c T I 0 N of ovulation in amenorrheic women with MRL/41, now called clomiphene or Clomid, was first reported in October, 1961, by Greenblatt and associates.’ Clinical trials with this drug for this purpose were instigated by previously reported experimental and clinical observations in women given MER-25, a chemically similar compound distributed by the William S. Merrell Company some years earlier. Kistner and Smith had administered MER25, in 1958, to postmenopausal women with mammary and endometrial cancer because of that compound’s antiestrogenic properties. In 2 of these patients urine specimens were analyzed for estrogens and gonadotropins during control and experimental periods. The findings indicated a decrease in the normal rate of metabolic conversion of estradiol to estrone to estriol as a result of therapy. This was accompanied or immediately followed by a simultaneous increase in the urinary excretion of total estrogens and total gonadotropins, and these responses were shown to be dependent upon the presence of the ovaries. The similarity between these findings and the hormonal situation that characterizes the ovulatory phase of the normal menstrual cycle’, 3 led to clinical trials with MER-25 in anovulatory young women. Four patients in whom the diagnosis was Stein-Leventhal ovaries were selected. All 4 gave evidence of ovulation a4 a result of the therapy, and 2 of the 3 mar-

Estrogen in the human ovary

Abstract Three normally menstruating women scheduled for oophorectomy were treated with large amounts of gonadotropins for 10 to 20 days just before operations. The gross and histologic appearance of the ovaries are described, and the results of detailed analyses for estrogens in the preoperative urines and in the large amounts of ovarian fluid are reported. The findings in each case are presented in relation to previously published results of enzyme studies, undertaken with tissue from these same ovaries, in which the possible metabolic pathways for the ovarian biogenesis of the estrogens were investigated. In the discussion of these data, pertinent findings of other investigators are reviewed, the clinical applicability of our present knowledge of ovarian estrogens is considered, and promising approaches in future investigations are suggested.

The Menstrual Cycle of the Bonnet Monkey (Macaca radiata)

The adult female bonnet monkey has been studied by: (a) cervical mucus weight, spinnbarkeit and ferning, (b) vaginal cytology, (c) sex skin changes, (d) uterine and ovarian size and consistency, and (