Relationships between oestradiol-17 beta, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 27 beta-diol in human benign hypertrophy and carcinoma of the prostate.

The relationship between the concentrations of oestradiol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol in circulating blood and prostatic tissues was studied in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and carcinoma of the prostate. All steroids were measured by radioimmunoassay. In patients with BPH the tissue concentrations of oestradiol, testosterone, DHT and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol expressed per kg wet weight were 228.6 +/- 7.4 (S.E.M.) pmol, 1.29 +/- 0.06 nmol, 25.61 +/- 1.15 nmol and 1.43 +/- 0.10 nmol respectively. The corresponding values for carcinomatous tissues were 380.1 +/- 19.4 pmol, 7.20 +/- 1.10 nmol, 12.32 +/- 1.56 nmol and 1.99 +/- 0.32 nmol. Significant differences (t-test) were found between the mean concentrations of oestradiol (P less than 0.001), testosterone (P less than 0.001), DHT (P less than 0.001) and 5 alpha androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol (P less than 0.05) in prostatic tissues of these two groups of patients. Significant negative correlations were observed between the tissue concentrations of oestradiol and DHT (r = -0.49, P less than 0.05) and between oestradiol and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha,17 beta-diol (r = -0.44, P less than 0.05) in BPH but not in malignant tissues. The plasma concentrations of oestradiol, testosterone, DHT and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol in patients with BPH were 147.4 +/- 6.9 pmol/l, 18.4 +/- 1.2 nmol/l, 2.6 +/- 0.2 nmol/l and 0.84 +/- 0.04 nmol/ respectively. The corresponding values for patients with carcinoma of the prostate were 145.5 +/- 17.0 pmol/l, 17.3 +/- 2.4 nmol/l, 2.0 +/- 0.3 nmol/l and 0.56 +/- 0.06 nmol/l respectively. The mean plasma 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol was found to be significantly higher in patients with BPH (P less than 0.01) than with carcinoma. No significant correlations were found between the tissue concentrations of these steroids and the corresponding plasma values, which suggested that their metabolism and accumulation in prostatic tumours are independent of their plasma concentrations.