Medicine: Hormones

Nobody really knows much about the gland-made hormones which influence personality, body shape, health. But what hormones do is often big news. Last week hormones made news in the treatment of acne and cancer:

¶ Seventeen young women suffered from severe acne associated with menstrual disorders. After injections of pregnant-mare serum (a blood extract rich in pituitary hormone), all but three of them developed clear skins, normal menses. Doctors are leary of sex-hormone treatment for acne—it has been "disappointing" in the past —but Drs. Charles Howard Birnberg and Charles Robert Rein of New York City believe that pregnant mare's serum is effective for this type of acne in women. They make no mention of men with acne.

¶ Testosterone propionate, a male sex hormone preparation, has been tried by German Exile Dr. Eric Fels (now in Buenos Aires) on three women far gone with breast cancer. The hormone improved all three cancer patients. One bedridden woman with a cancer that had spread to her bones was able to get up out of bed, now plays ping-pong every day. There is some recalcification of the thin spots in her bones. She still harbors cancer cells, but healthy fibrous tissue is growing among them.