The level of androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) of carcinoma and pericarcinoma tissue were determined in 30 cases of male hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients operated by streptavidin peroxdase conjugated method, meanwhile used 20 patients with benign liver disease as a contrast group. The results showed that the positive rate of AR in tumor tisse was 80.0%, significantly higher than that in peritumor tissue (46.7%) and liver tissue of benign diseases (40.0%), Ｐ＜0.01, and there was no significantly difference between the latter two groups (Ｐ＞0.05). The positive rate of ER in carcinoma tissue (43.3%) was notably lower than that in pericarcinoma tissue (80.0%), Ｐ＜0.01. Statistically significantly difference wasn’t achieved in contrast with the benign diseases group (50.0%), Ｐ＞0.05. The positive rate of PR had no significantly difference among the three groups (Ｐ＞0.05). The authors suggest that sex hormone is related to initializing and developing of HCC by the action via its receptor, the level of AR and ER can be used as a prognosis determine index of HCC.
The serum level of testosterone (T), estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) in 86 cases with primary liver cancer (PLC) (male：76 cases; female：10 cases) was determined by RIA method. The result showed that for male cases, serum level of T and ratio of T/E２ in operation group and nonoperation group was significantly higher than that in benign hepatic diseases group (BHD group) and normal control group (NC group), but the value of E２ obviously lower than the later two groups. After tumor resection, the level of E2 increased, while serum level of T and value of T/E２ decreased, which had no significant difference as contrasted with BHD group and NC group. The serum level of T,E2 in female PLC group made no difference to BHD group and NC group, but the value of T/E2 much higher than NC group. No obvious changes of the serum level of progesterone can be observed in both male and female cases. Our research showed that high serum testosterone level and low estradiol level may be concerned with PLC. The possibility and importance of sex hormone imbalance on initializing and developing of PLC is suggested.