Hormone-Dependent Tumor Growth : Conference on the Treatment of Hormone Dependent Tumors (T.H.D.T.), Tokyo, January 1999. Supplement Issue: Oncology 1999, Vol. 57, Suppl. 2

Hormonotherapy is a unique treatment for hormone-dependent tumours such as breast cancer, endometrial cancer and prostate cancer.

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference on the treatment of hormone-dependent tumours, held in Tokyo in 1999.

This conference highlighted molecular mechanisms of oestrogen action in breast cancer and endometrial cancer in relation to oestrogen receptors and pertaining growth factors.

Growth stimulation and inhibition of oestrogen-dependent tumour progression are primarily regulated by oestrogen and the oestrogen receptor system.

There are, however, other mechanisms that modify growth and growth inhibition of these tumours.

At this meeting, several articles along this line were presented, including those on gonadotropins and their receptors in ovarian cancer, medroxy-progesterone acetate and progesterone receptors in endometrial cancer, telomerase and mitogen-activated protein kinase in breast cancer and PPARy in leukaemia.

Among those, an important presentation was given on local hormones that directly affect individual tumour cells. It was suggested that new insights into local events in the tumour tissue will help to understand the complicated mechanism of hormone treatment.