Intratumoral metabolism and synthesis of estrogens as a result of the interactions of various enzymes are considered to play very important roles in the pathogenesis and development of hormone dependent breast carcinoma. Among these enzymes, intratumoral aromatase plays as important role converting serum androgens to estrogens in situ, and servies as a source of estrogen, especially in postmenopausal patients with breast carcinoma. However, other enzymes such as the 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17β-HSD) isozymes, estrogen sulfatase (STS) and estrogen sulfotransferase, also play pivotal roles in intratumoral estrogen production. The 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17β-HSD) isozymes catalyze the interconversion of estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1), and thereby serve to modulate the tissue levels of bioactive E2 in human breast carcinoma. 17β-HSD type 1 catalyzes primarily the reduction of estrone (E1) to estradiol (E2), whereas 17β-HSD type 2 catalyzes primarily the oxidation of E2 to E1. In human breast desease, 17β-HSD type 1 is expressed in proliferative disease without atypia, atypical ductal hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma. 17β-HSD type 2 has not been detected in any of these breast lesions. In addition, 17β-HSD type 1 coexpression is significantly correlated with estrogen receptor status in invasive ductal carcinoma cases. These results indicate that breast carcinoma can effectively convert E1, produced as a result of in situ aromatization, to E2, a biologically potent estrogen, which exerts estrogenic actions on tumor cells through estrogen receptor, especially the α subtype in carcinoma cells. Therefore, inhibiting intratumoral 17β-HSD type 1 is also considered to contribute to inhibition of cell proliferation by decreasing intratumoral estradiol. Estrogen sulfotransferase (EST;SULT 1E1orSTE gene) sulfonates estrogens to inactive estrogen sulfates, while steroid sulfatase (STS) hydrolyzes estrone sulfate (E1-S) to estrone. EST immunoreactivity was recently demonstrated to be significantly associated with a decreased risk of recurrence or improved prognosis by both uni- and multivariate analyses. STS immunoreactivity was significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence by univariate analysis. These findings also suggest that EST and STS plays important roles in regulation of in situ estrogen production, and EST especially is a potent prognostic factor in human breast carcinoma. Therefore, the inhibition of intratumoral STS might also serve as an endocrine therapy in postmenopausal patients. It is also important to note that the status of intratumoral aromatase, 17β-HSD type 1, EST and STS in human breast cancer tissues is variable and not necessarily correlated with each other, which suggests different potential sources of intratumoral estrogens among individual patients with breast cancer. These findings indicate that there are patients who could benefit more from inhibition of these intratumoral enzymes rather than aromatase inhibition as an endocrine therapy. Therefore, it will become very important to examine the intratumoral levels of 17β-HSD type 1 and STS in the resected specimens of human breast carcinoma as potential targets of novel endocrine therapy in the near future.

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