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雌激素可导致肺部肿瘤生长
http://www.100md.com 2000年4月10日 SOURCE InteliHealth
     The hormone estrogen is known to play a role in the development of some breast cancers. New research findings suggest that the hormone may also contribute to the development of non-small cell lung cancer.

    Specifically, compared with normal lung cells, lung cancer cells contain a greater number of estrogen receptors, strongly suggesting that estrogen enhances lung tumor growth, Dr. Jill Siegfried of the University of Pittsburgh told her colleagues at the 91st annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on Sunday.
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    "There have been a number of epidemiologic studies suggesting that the risk of lung cancer for women who smoke is higher than for men," Siegfried told Reuters Health. "If you adjust the risk by the amount of tobacco exposure, at any given level of smoking the women‘s odds ratios are anywhere from 0.5 to 1.0 higher than the men‘s."

    "This suggests that there is some biological difference between men and women that is influencing lung cancer risk," she continued. A key recent finding was the identification of a second estrogen receptor, called estrogen receptor beta, which has a different tissue distribution than the classical estrogen receptor alpha. Rather than being concentrated in the breast, estrogen receptor beta levels are high in the ovary, brain and lung.
, 百拇医药
    To further explore this, Siegfried‘s group evaluated five non-small cell lung cancer cell lines for the presence of estrogen receptor alpha and estrogen receptor beta. They also examined normal lung cells and cells from lung cancer patients.

    Estrogen receptor beta was detected in both normal and malignant lung cells. However, estrogen receptor alpha was rarely detected in normal cells, and was present in significantly higher levels in lung tumor cells.
, 百拇医药
    Siegfried‘s group found that cell division increased in both lung cancer cells and normal cells exposed to estrogen. They also found that anti-estrogen agents inhibited tumor cell growth.

    The findings suggest that "estrogen plays some normal role in physiology in the lung, but we don‘t know what that role is," Siegfried said. The data also offer "a possible reason why women might be more susceptible to lung cancer... and suggest the possibility that anti-estrogens that have been useful in breast cancer treatment and prevention might also work against lung cancer."
, 百拇医药
    However, "we have to be very careful" because some agents like tamoxifen have anti-estrogen effects in breast tissue, but actually act more like estrogen in other organs. To this end, Siegfried‘s team is currently examining the biological activity of various anti-estrogen compounds for their effects in the lung.

    These data provide women with even more reason to stop smoking, Siegfried added, especially women who take hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills.

    In the mean time, the increasing smoking rates among young women in the US "may mean that we‘re going to see a lot more lung cancer than we ever expected to.", 百拇医药