Endocrine therapy in pancreatic carcinoma

There are indications of the possible effects of sex hormones on pancreatic carcinoma. Estrogen receptor (ER) has been demonstrated in pancreatic tumors in experimental animals and in humans and it has been suggested that endocrine manipulation may be effective in the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma. However, it is still controversial whether this lethal cancer can potentially benefit from endocrine therapy. One explanation for the conflicting data on the benefit of hormonal manipulation in the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma may stem from the fact that there is no adequate marker to assess estrogen dependency of the pancreatic tumors. In this article, we review our work on tissue plasminogen activator as a prognostic guide to evaluate the efficacy of hormonal therapy in human pancreatic carcinoma, and also suggest that a selected subgroup of patients with this lethal cancer may have a potential clinical benefit from endocrine therapy, especially medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment.