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Mutagenicity and Estrogens

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The Menopause and Postmenopause

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Abstract

A number of recent papers suggested that estrogens, including conjugated estrogens, used for the treatment of menopausal symptoms and the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis, may cause uterine cancer and breast cancer1–10 On the other hand several investigators found no definite connection of estrogen therapy to uterine cancer or breast cancer11–26 Carcinogenicity of estrogens has been reported previously in experimental animals27–30 The question arises whether estrogens are indeed carcinogenic or mutagenic, and whether they act by altering the hormonal milieu or by increasing susceptibility of the host to other carcinogenic influences. For this reason, it appeared to be of interest to study the direct mutagenic effect of estrogens in bacterial and mammalian systems, including normal and neoplastic human cell lines. We investigated the most commonly used postmenopausal conjugated estrogen preparation: Premarin.

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Authors
  1. J. L. Ambrus
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  2. C. M. Ambrus
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  3. S. R. Sirianni
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  4. P. Hale
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  5. M. Braun
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  6. C. C. Huang
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  7. B. Paigen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cattedra di Patologia Ostetrica e Ginecologica, Univeristà di Roma, V. le Regina Elena, 324-00161, Roma, Italy

    N. Pasetto

  2. Istituto di Farmacologia, Università di Milano, Via Vanvitelli, 32-Milano, Italy

    R. Paoletti

  3. Department of Health, State of New York, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, 14263, Buffalo, New York, USA

    J. L. Ambrus

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© 1980 MTP Press Limited

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Ambrus, J.L. et al. (1980). Mutagenicity and Estrogens. In: Pasetto, N., Paoletti, R., Ambrus, J.L. (eds) The Menopause and Postmenopause. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7230-1_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7230-1_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-011-7232-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-7230-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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