Endocrine-metabolic criteria for distinguishing two pathogenetic types of breast cancer

Hypothalamic threshold of sensitivity to homeostatic inhibition was studied by means of the dexamethasone test of inhibiting excretion of steroid hormones in 47 patients with the primary breast cancer of different age groups. Before the dexamethasone test and after it, blood specimens were taken for the following tests: daily variation of blood sugar or sensitivity to insulin action, cholesterol, lipoproteins, phospholipids, uric acid, growth hormone and insuline levels, and level of corticosteroids. On the base of the results obtained all the patients could be divided into two groups: 1. patients with signs of elevated threshold of hypothalamic sensitivity to inhibition and 2. patients without such signs. The breast cancer developing against the background of endocrine metabolic disturbances characteristic of advanced age is on the whole prognostically more favorable than tumors in women who have no disturbances of that kind. However, metabolic shifts characteristic of ageing obviously play an important role in creating a background that promotes higher incidence of mammary cancer in elderly subjects.