Intracrinology and gastric cancer

Overall incidence of gastric cancer (GC) in most populations is approximately two times higher in men than women. Therefore, steroid hormones are suspect to play a role in gastric carcinogenesis. Large amounts of steroid hormones in postmenopausal women and older men are synthesized in peripheral tissues through enzymatic conversion of blood derived precursors into active estrogens and androgens in so called, intracrine mechanism. Moreover, abnormal expression of genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes was shown in numerous malignant tumors including GC. These abnormalities can be associated with deregulated production of steroid hormones in gastric tissue and thus affect the risk of GC. For that reason this short review aims to summarize the current knowledge about the expression of genes involved in metabolism of steroid hormones in normal and malignant gastric mucosa and thus, estimate the potential of these tissues to intracrine synthesis of steroid hormones. This findings could be useful in understanding the role of above mechanism in GC and could help to find therapeutic approaches in future.