Endocrine management of breast cancer

Abstract

The first report that the ovaries influenced the development of the normal human female breast, is to be found in a case record from St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, dated 1775. The surgeon Percival (later Sir Percival) Pott had removed the normal ovaries of a twenty-three-year old girl during the repair of bilateral groin hernias, in which they had become entrapped. He reported that the patient had “enjoyed good health ever since” but that … “Her breasts, which were large, are gone, nor has she ever menstruated since the operation, which is now some years” (Pott 1775).