[Liver disorder owing to estrogen therapy in prostatic cancer, examined histopathologically in six autopsy cases]

The parenchymal damage of the liver after estrogen therapy for prostatic cancer, mainly treated with diethylstilbestrol diphosphate (DES-DP), was studied in the six autopsied cases, herein. The parenchymal disorder of the liver was "nonalcoholic steatohepatitis", reported by Ludwig et al., and its degree of disorder was dependent upon the administered dose of estrogen. The acceptable total dose of DES-DP was supposed to be about 150 g at maximum, according to the various degrees of damage examined histopathologically in the six cases who were administered at total doses of DES-DP from 12.6 g to 619 g. Comparison of the histopathologic damage to the liver function tests performed within 10 days before death revealed that only the serum levels of cholinesterase (ChE) were abnormally decreased, suggesting its importance to predict the degree of "nonalcoholic steatohepatitis" by monitoring of ChE.