Abstract
THERE is more and more evidence coming from several research groups that a number of steroid molecules with no hormonal competence nevertheless possess carcinogenic properties. Ghiron1, and later Cook et al.2, obtained sarcomas with deoxycholic acid by subcutaneous injection in mice; cholesterol itself has been shown by Hieger3 to produce a 12 per cent incidence of sarcomas, as against 0.8 per cent in control mice injected with the solvent alone. More recently, we recorded the activity of apocholic acid, a dehydration product of cholic acid; it gave sarcomas in 4 out of 42 mice, as compared with 0 per cent in 350 mice injected with the solvent alone4. Tumours have also been recorded by Bryson and Bischoff5 in Marsh mice given testicular injections of cholesterol α-oxide. We wish now to report on the definite sarcomagenic activity of two further steroid molecules, one with a biochemical function, 7-dehydrocholesterol [in the form of its acetate (I)], the precursor of vitamin D3, and the other, 3β-acetoxy-bisnor-Δ5-cholenic acid (II), a product of the artificial oxidative degradation of several sterols and bile acids6.
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References
Ghiron, V., Proc. Third Internat. Cancer Congress, 116 (1939).
Cook, J. W., Kennaway, E. L., and Kennaway, N. M., Nature, 145, 627 (1940). Badger, G. M., Cook, J. W., Hewett, C. L., Kennaway, E. L., Kennaway, N. M., Martin, R. H., and Robinson, A. M., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 139, 439 (1940).
Hieger, I., Brit. Med. Bull., 14, 159 (1958); Acta Unio Intern. Contra Cancrum, 15, 603 (1960).
Lacassagne, A., Buu-HOï, N. P., and Zajdela, F., Nature, 190, 1007 (1961).
Bryson, G., and Bischoff, F., Proc. Cong. Amer. Assoc. for Cancer Res., Toronto (1963).
Fieser, L. F., and Fieser, M., Natural Products Related to Phenanthrene, third ed. (Reinhold Pub. Corp., New York, 1949).
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LACASSAGNE, A., BUU-HOÏ, N. & ZAJDELA, F. Carcinogenic Activity in situ of Further Steroid Compounds. Nature 209, 1026–1027 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2091026b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2091026b0
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