Hormonal study in patients developing amenorrhea during adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

The sera of 15 premenopausal women with operable breast cancer and who had developed amenorrhea during adjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide + methotrexate + fluorouracil were analyzed for the following hormones: 17-beta-estradiol, luteinizing hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone and prolactin. The blood levels did not differ significantly from those found in patients operated on for breast cancer and in spontaneous menopause (controls). These origins suggest that the amenorrhea induced by CMF chemotherapy is of ovarian origin.