Ectopic production of human chorionic gonadotrophin-like material by breast cancer

Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) is a placental protein whose ectopic secretion by nontrophoblast tumors has been claimed to be of clinical relevance. Serum levels of hCG were measured in 570 patients with breast disease. A double-antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA) using antisera to hCG-beta was employed. Approximately 14% of patients with breast cancer were found to have elevated serum hCG levels. Such raised titers were not stage- or tumor-type-related, but occurred only in postmenopausal subjects. Further study showed that those patients with elevated hCG levels also had raised levels of human luteinizing hormone (hLH). Assay cross-reactivity was shown to account for the "spurious" hCG elevations. An immunocytochemical study also failed to find hCG an ectopic breast tumor constituent and/or product. It is concluded that hCG is not produced by breast tumors and has no clinical utility.