Osteolytic sterol in human breast cancer.

Eleven of twelve human breast cancers contained a lipid which increased urinary (45)Ca and (40)Ca excretion of (45)Ca-labeled, parathyroidectomized rats receiving a low Ca diet. The lipid has mobility on thin-layer chromatography and gas-liquid chromatography close to, but not identical with, that of 7-dehydrocholesterol. Authentic 7-dehydrocholesterol has osteolytic activity similar to that of the extracted sterol. Fluorescence and Lieberman-Burchard reactions of the extracted sterol are similar to those of 7-dehydrocholesterol. The lipid was found by thin-layer chromatography in the extracts which had osteolytic activity. Neither the lipid nor osteolytic activity was found in extracts of tissue from two normal human breasts.