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Female Hormones: For which Cancers do They Matter ?

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Causation and Prevention of Human Cancer

Part of the book series: Developments in Oncology ((DION,volume 63))

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Abstract

Changes in a woman’s body resulting from menstrual cycles, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and use of exogenous female hormones are not commonly considered “environmental” factors. They are, however, environmental in origin, in so far as they are not solely the product of the individual’s own genetic material, and they were certainly regarded as “extrinsic factors” by the World Health Organisation (1), expert committee on the prevention of cancer, which defined extrinsic factors as including “modifying factors” that favour neoplasia of apparently intrinsic origin (e.g. hormone unbalances). Accordingly, Doll & Peto (2) include them among theoritically avoidable causes of cancer, also on the basis of the wide variations of presumably hormone-dependent tumours from community to community. Doll & Peto (2), only considering cancers of the breast, endometrium and ovary (i.e. 29% of United States (US) female cancer deaths and 13% of all US cancer deaths) estimated as approximately 7% the proportion of cancer deaths avoidable by control of the causes linked to endogenous hormones (i.e. menstrual and reproductive factors) and exogenous ones, chiefly oral contraceptives (OCs).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology Unit, Aviano Cancer Center, Italy

    Silvia Franceschi (Chairman of the Hormones and Sexual Factors and Cancer ECP Working Group)

  2. European Organisation for Cooperation in Cancer Prevention Studies, Brussels, Belgium

    Silvia Franceschi (Chairman of the Hormones and Sexual Factors and Cancer ECP Working Group)

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  1. Silvia Franceschi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bacterial Metabolism Research Laboratory, PHLS Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, Salisbury, UK

    Michael J Hill DSc, FRCPath (Chairman ECP Scientific Committee, Brussels, Belgium) (Chairman ECP Scientific Committee, Brussels, Belgium)

  2. National Institute for Cancer Prevention, Genoa, Italy

    Attilio Giacosa MD (Scientific Coordinator, ECP, Belgium, Brussels) (Scientific Coordinator, ECP, Belgium, Brussels)

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Franceschi, S. (1991). Female Hormones: For which Cancers do They Matter ?. In: Hill, M.J., Giacosa, A. (eds) Causation and Prevention of Human Cancer. Developments in Oncology, vol 63. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3308-1_8

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