Plasma steroids and nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

The concentrations of plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DS), androsterone sulphate (AS) and cortisol have been measured in Chinese men living in Singapore. They were categorised as follows: 91 normal controls or ostensibly normal healthy subjects; 26 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma; 25 patients with cancer of other sites, and patients with either; patients severely ill with nonneoplastic diseases; and patients with non neoplastic diseases without constitutional symptoms. Each group was further divided into subjects 44 yr of age and younger, and 45 yr of age and older. For the younger age group, the mean level of DS of the control group differed significantly from those of the clinical groups, although for AS, only the cancer groups differed from the control group. There were no differences in plasma cortisol levels between any of the groups. Plasma DS and AS levels were significantly lower in Chinese men with nasopharyngeal carcinoma than in normal controls but this is almost certainly a nonspecific effect of the disease, rather than a factor in the etiology, since a similar abnormality was found in patients with cancer at other sites and, to a lesser extent, in severely ill patients with non neoplastic diseases.