Breast cancer: a comparison of response to endocrine therapy and oestrogen excretion patterns including unusual metabolites.

The urinary excretion patterns of oestrogen metabolites, including unusual metabolites, were determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry for 63 women with advanced breast cancer and 39 normal postmenopausal women. The concentration of total unusual metabolites excreted was found to be an excellent discriminant between breast-cancer patients and controls (P less than 0.0001). Discrimination between responders and non-responders to endocrine therapy was attempted, using several different indices. Of these, the ratio of Classical Oestrogens to Unusual Metabolites (CE/UM) proved a fair discriminant, but the product of this ratio and the oestriol ratio (CE/UM x E3R) was much the best discriminant. This product, termed a Pattern Index, has considerable potential, not only as a discriminant for selecting therapy, but also as a rapid index of patient response to that therapy.