Comparatively Low Levels of Oestrin in Cases of Chorioepithelioma and Hydatidiform Mole

Abstract

Although there have been numerous reports of the findings of tremendous amounts of the anterior-pituitary-like hormone (A.P.L.) in the blood and urine of cases of hydatidiform mole and chorioepithelioma, we have found no mention of determinations of oestrin in these patients, and it has even been assumed 1 that the oestrin is also very high. This assumption is presumably based upon the fact that in pregnancy both of these hormones are easily demonstrable.

In the course of our quantitative studies of A.P.L. and oestrin in pregnancy, we have had access to the blood and urine of 4 cases of chorioepithelioma, 3 of them males. The same methods of analysis as those previously described 2 have been used. The results in Table I demonstrate that although the blood and urine of these patients contain a higher concentration of A.P.L. than is ever found in normal pregnancy, the oestrin content is very low, in fact not demonstrable without concentration of the specimens by extraction. In cases 3 and 4, 700 cc. of urine were extracted according to the method of Kurzrok. 3 The amount of oestrin excreted in 24 hours is somewhat more than that of the normal men whose urines we have extracted by the same method, about the same as that of a case of testicular embryoma, but by no means comparable with the amount usually found even in very early pregnancy. 4

Case 1, a woman who was admitted to the Free Hospital for Women dying of chorioepithelioma, received intravenously 27 cc. of a special preparation of Theelin (kindly supplied by Parke, Davis and Company) containing 1000 r.u. per cc. A drop in the A.P.L. level in both blood and urine followed.