The effect of estrogen on the serum glucuronidase activity of patients with breast cancer.

A relationship between estrogen and the @-gIu curonidase activity of the uterus was first suggest ed by Fishman (2, 5). He reported that a decreased glucuronidase activity of the uterus in the mouse followed ovariectomy and that this activity was markedly increased by subsequent treatment of the animals with estrogens. A similar estrogen-@9glucuronidase relationship for other sexual tissues has been suggested by the following observations: (a) Fishman and Anlyan (4) reported a greatly in creased glucuronidase activity in the human mam mary gland during lactation and in breast carci nomas; (b) Odell, Burt, and Bethea (11) observed an increase in the glucuronidase activity in the cervix of women during pregnancy and in both the cervix and the vaginal fluid of untreated lower genital tract carcinoma. Kerr, Levvy, and Camp bell (8) have suggested that the increased glucu ronidase activity effected by estrogens and present in malignancies is a generalized phenomenon, in that they have observed an increased @9-glucuroni dase in a wide variety of tissues in which mitosis has been stimulated. Fishman and Anlyan (4) also observed an increased glucuronidase activity in a number of cancers involving nonsexual tissues; they point out, however, that in none of these cases is the increase in glucuronidase activity as great as that found in the mammary carcinoma. There is no direct evidence that an increase in the @9-glucuronidase activity of the blood occurs when a high level of estrogen is present in the body or in the presence of malignancies. Two indirect indications of such a relationship have, however, been observed: (a) Fishman (8) and McDonald and Odell (9) all reported a rise in the blood levels of @3-glucuronidase during pregnancy and obtained curves which paralleled the increased estrogen pro