Urinary excretion of steroids by Japanese women with breast cancer.
The urinary excretion of steroids was determined in premenopausal patients with advanced breast cancer in the non-menstrual phase and in control women in the follicular phase, ovulatory stage, and luteal phase. The estrone level in the urine of cancer patients was higher than that in the urine of control women at any phase. Excretion of 17 beta-estradiol in the follicular and luteal phases was similar in the urine of control women and cancer patients, but estradiol and estriol levels in the ovulatory stage of control women were higher than those of cancer patients. The estriol level in the urine of control women in the luteal phase was also higher than that of cancer patients. Total 17-ketosteroid was lower in the urine of cancer patients than in that of controls at any phase. Among the fractions of 17-ketosteroids, only dehydroepiandrosterone was excreted at a higher level by cancer patients than by control subjects.