title: Androgens and mammary growth and neoplasia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evaluation of current clinical, experimental, genetic, and epidemiological data pertaining to the role of androgens in mammary growth and neoplasia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature review.
  
  
  METHODS
  National Institutes of Health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recent, basic, clinical, and epidemiological studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  METHODS
  Effects of androgens on mammary epithelial proliferation and/or breast cancer incidence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Experimental data derived from rodents and cell lines provide conflicting results that appear be strain- and cell line-dependent. Epidemiologic studies have significant methodological limitations and provide inconclusive results. The study of molecular defects involving androgenic pathways in breast cancer is in its infancy. Clinical and nonhuman primate studies, however, suggest that androgens inhibit mammary epithelial proliferation and breast growth and that conventional estrogen treatment suppresses endogenous androgens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Abundant clinical evidence suggests that androgens normally inhibit mammary epithelial proliferation and breast growth. Suppression of androgens by conventional estrogen treatment may thus enhance estrogenic breast stimulation and possibly breast cancer risk. Clinical trials to evaluate the impact of combined estrogen and androgen hormone replacement regimens on mammary gland homeostasis are needed to address this issue.
authors: Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors: Constantine
authors: C
authors: Dimitrakakis
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Zhou
authors: Carolyn A
authors: CA
authors: Bondy
mesh_terms: D000728:Androgens / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001940:Breast / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D003278:Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism; D004967:Estrogens / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000728:Androgens; D003278:Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal; D004967:Estrogens