BACKGROUNDMany researches indicate that endocrine imbalance plays an important role in the oncogenesis and development of malignant tumor. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of serum sexual hormones' level in male patients with lung cancer.

METHODSRIA and IRMA were used to detect the levels of serum estrodiol (E₂ ), testosterone (T), prolactin (PRL), growth hormone (GH), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone(FSH) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in 62 lung cancer patients, 30 benign pulmonary disease patients and 30 healthy men.

RESULTSThe level of T in male patients with lung cancer was obviously lower than that in healthy men (t=0.348, P < 0.01 ); the levels of E₂, PRL and FSH remarkably increased in male patients with lung cancer compared with healthy men (t=0.362, P < 0.01; t=2.913, P < 0.05; t=2.739, P < 0.01); the level of T in male patients with lung cancer was obviously lower than that in patients with benign pulmonary diseases (t= 3.903 , P < 0.05 ); the levels of T in squamous cell carcinoma group and adenocarcinoma group decreased significantly compared with small cell lung cancer group (t=0.358, P < 0.01; t=3.902, P < 0.05). The levels of FSH and TSH in squamous cell carcinoma group were significantly higher than those in adenocarcinoma group (t= 3.918, P < 0.01; t=2.912, P < 0.05). The level of T in lymph node metastasis group decreased obviously compared with non-lymph node metastasis group (t=3.914, P < 0.01), but the other hormones were at the same level in different pathological types of lung cancer.

CONCLUSIONSThere are some disturbance of serum sexual hormones' level in lung cancer patients. The detection of serum E₂ , T, PRL and FSH may have some value to lung cancer diagnosis and can be an index to predict the state of lung cancer.