The Basis for Hormonal Therapy

Certain clinical and pathologic features associated with adenocarcinoma of the renal cortex (hypernephroma) suggest that the progress of this tumor may be influenced by host-resistance factors. Thus, small renal adenomas may be latent or preinvasive malignant foci, a situation perhaps comparable to that found in the prostate. Actual regressive changes in renal tumors have been described, and these may represent the spontaneous healing of potential carcinomas.19In some cases, the clinical progress of the primary renal tumor or of its metastases is unusually slow. In others, there may be a greatly prolonged interval between nephrectomy and signs of recurrence. The above examples of "restrained" tumor growth, together with those unusual cases of spontaneous regression of renal metastases, or of prolonged survival after excision of an apparently solitary deposits appear to support the concept of a host-defense mechanism against this tumor. The possibility that endocrine factors may be involved in