A Chemical Facilitator of Plant–Fungus Communication

Hormone concentrations in blood and total 12 h urine values were compared between 40 postmenopausal women with breast cancer and 40 control women in a study which carefully controlled for the possible confounding effects of age, weight and pregnancy history by individually matching cases and controls on these factors. Breast cancer cases had received only surgical treatment for their localised disease, which was diagnosed from 1 to 9 years before hormonal evaluation. Cases had 15% higher serum oestradiol levels (P=0.02), 40% more urinary oestradiol (P=0.03) and 44% more urinary oestriol (P=0.04) than control