Inhibition of human mammary and prostatic cancers by adrenalectomy.

It is known that excision of the adrenal glands with maintenance of the animal on sodium chloride has two opposite effects on tumors. Adrenalectomy stimulates the growth of lymphoid tumors in the rat and mouse while retarding the growth rate of many other neoplasms in these species; a decrease in the size of established tumors has not been re ported. It will be demonstrated in this paper that adrenalectomy with maintenance of the organism on cortisone acetate can cause some regression of neoplasms, namely, certain cancers of the breast and prostate of man. The depression of the growth rate of transplantable tumors by adrenalectomy has been observed several times. Joannovics (23) observed that trans planted sarcomas in adrenalectomized mice were slightly over 20 per cent less in weight than in in tact controls. Roffo (30) reported a decrease in the growth rate of a transplanted sarcoma and carcinoma of rats following excision of the adre nals. Bischoff and Maxwell (2) did not find that adrenalectomy significantly affected the growth be havior of Walker carcinoma 256 in rats. However, Ingle and Baker (21), with more precise methods, found that adrenalectomy significantly retarded the rate of tumor growth of Walker carcinoma 256 in force-fed ovariectomized rats and in intact males; in this laboratory we have been able to con firm these findings. Funk et al. (10) also found that the Walker tumor grows at a reduced rate in adrenalectomized rats. Ingle and Baker ascribed the retardation of neoplastic growth to the theory that rapidly growing tissues cannot attain a "peak