Premium
Serum hormone levels among patients with prostatic carcinoma or benign prostatic hyperplasia and clinic controls
Author(s) -
Hulka Barbara S.,
Checkoway Harvey,
Hammond John E.,
Ferdinando George Di,
Mickey Don D.,
Fried Floyd A.,
Stumpf Walter E.,
Beckman William C.,
Clark Terry D.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
the prostate
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.295
H-Index - 123
eISSN - 1097-0045
pISSN - 0270-4137
DOI - 10.1002/pros.2990110208
Subject(s) - medicine , hyperplasia , testosterone (patch) , hormone , prolactin , relative risk , endocrinology , urology , confidence interval
Abstract This study sought to identify differences in serum hormone levels between prostatic cancer (Cap) patients, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients, and clinic controls (CC). Serum testosterone, estradiol, and prolactin values were obtained from 35 Cap, 42 BPH, and 161 CC patients attending a single medical center between January 1984 and April 1985. Relative risk estimates adjusted for age and race were calculated to compare hormone values between each case group and the CC. The distributions of hormone values and the testosterone to estradiol (T/E) ratios were grouped into thirds with the lowest third forming the reference category. The relative risk estimates for BPH in the middle and high thirds of testosterone were greater than unity (1.26 and 2.10, respectively), whereas the relative risk estimates in the middle and high thirds of estradiol were less than unity (0.63 and 0.35, respectively). For the middle and high thirds of the T/E ratio, the relative risk estimates for BPH showed statistically significant three‐ to fourfold increases. Modest depression of serum testosterone and estradiol was noted for CaP patients compared to CC, although the differences were not statistically significant. This depression was interpreted to be a likely result of the malignant process rather than a cause of it, whereas the development of clinically evident BPH was felt to be a biologically plausible response to an elevated T/E ratio.