Pancreatic carcinoma and low serum testosterone; a correlation secondary to cancer cachexia?

Serum testosterone concentration (S(T)) and four nutritional parameters were measured in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (19), other malignancy (17) and other non-malignant conditions (29). In females neither the diagnosis nor the nutritional parameters correlated with the S(T). In males significantly lower S(T) were found in those with malignant conditions. Also, in males poor nutritional status correlated significantly with low S(T). Those patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma did not have significantly lower S(T) than those with other cancers. A covariate analysis of the results supports the conjecture that it is primarily the poor nutritional status of cancer patients which leads to depression of S(T). This study provides no evidence to support the existence of a direct relationship between pancreatic cancer and testosterone metabolism.