TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Hormones and Cancer A1 - Lack, Nathan A1 - Leygue, Etienne A2 - Harrington, Lea A. A2 - Tannock, Ian F. A2 - Hill, Richard P. A2 - Cescon, David W. PY - 2021 T2 - The Basic Science of Oncology, 6e AB - The word hormone was first used in Modern Medicine by the English physician Ernest Henry Starling (1866-1927), when he described the chemical messengers that travel through the body from the cells of production to a target organ. This word comes directly from the Greek verb ὁρμῶ (ormo), that means “to lunge” or “rush forward” as these messengers “rush” from the cells of origin toward the target organ. Today, the term hormone refers to those chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream between cellular sites and regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones belong to 3 major classes: eicosanoids, steroids, and peptidic products. Even though isolated cells from organs such as the heart or the intestines secrete hormones and hence can be considered endocrine cells, endocrine glands are typically defined as those specific regions of the body where endocrine cells are concentrated. These regions include the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, parathyroids, thymus, pancreas, pineal, adrenals, ovaries, and testes. As hormones are the only way outside of the nervous system for our organs to communicate, they are involved in almost all physiological processes including digestion, respiration, lactation, reproduction, response to stress, movement, growth, and many others. Given their ubiquitous roles in cellular physiology, it is not surprising they are also critical to both tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Many common cancer types are driven by inappropriate hormone signaling, including prostate, breast, endometrium, ovary, thyroid, testes, and bone cancers (Henderson et al, 1982). In this chapter, we will focus primarily on breast and prostate cancers to illustrate the relationship between hormones and cancer as they are among the most common causes of cancer-related death in women and men. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1179325815 ER -