[The correlation of the hormonal and clinical effects in patients with prostatic cancer undergoing niftolid treatment in combination with low doses of synestrol]

Effects were studied of niftolide in tablets, 0.25 g on a three-times daily basis in combination with low doses of sinestrol, 5 mg intramuscularly within 24 h, on tumor growth, blood plasma content of luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T) and testosterone-estradiol-binding globulin (TEBG) in 46 patients with prostate gland carcinoma, including seven patients with metastases. After treatment for three months, plasma T level decreased by 63%, that of LH by 53% whereas TEBG increased twice as much. The treatments were administered for as long as 10 months, with estrogen therapy being tapered to a dose of 3 mg daily. The above treatment schedule resulted in stabilization or partial regression of tumor growth in as many as 94.9% cases; also deserving to be noticed was improvement in the outflow of urine and alleviation of the pain syndrome. The clinical effect is believed to be due to pharmacological blockade of androgenic receptors in the tumor and its metastases as well as to antigonadotropic activity of estrogen and striking lowering of blood plasma free T.