Androgen and Anaplasia *

It is difficult to speak with scientific restraint of the contributions of Edgar Allen to mankind. It is perhaps enough to say that here in New Haven the important school of anatomists, which knew his influence, thrives with vigor, and that his work has profoundly influenced biology universally, as will be apparent later in this lecture. Sexual maturity, in addition to conferring certain biological rights and privileges, entails an increased susceptibility to neoplasms. If any proof is needed, consider cancer of the breast which is exdusively a disease of adult life where in man more than 99 per cent of the cases occur in females."3 The relationship of tumors to the male sex is well recognized also. Gastric cancer is slightly commoner in the male13 19; among white males the death rate from cancer of the buccal cavity was seven times that for white females,13 while cancers of the lung, skin, and urinary bladder occur more than twice as frequently in men as in women. Maleness does not differ from femaleness in hormones alone; the occupation and habits of man enter into the causation of his diseases. There is, however, a well-recognized androgenic hormonal component operative in certain neoplasms. This will be discussed at this time. Beginning with the extraction of an estrogenic agent from the ovaries of the hog 'by Allen and Doisy2 in 1923 numerous studies have been made of the sex hormones and many androgenic substances as well as estrogens have been isolated in a crystalline state; not only has their chemical constitution 'been determined, but partial or complete synthesis of most of them has been achieved. This work represents one of the greatest triumphs of science. Androgen is a stimulant of growth causing certain areas to increase in cell mass, the response representing the result of a complex interplay of chemical agents acting on end-organs specifically reactive to these forces. The responsive areas are most diversified and growth is strikingly observed, inter alia, in the integument and its appendages, the musde, larynx, and the accessory sex structures. Areal hyperplasia is always of interest in the neoplastic