A synthetic form of the female sex hormone oestrogen, occasionally used to treat prostate cancer (see prostate, cancer of) and, in postmenopausal women only, breast cancer. Common side effects include nausea, oedema, and breast enlargement (gynaecomastia) in men.
(DES) n. a synthetic female sex hormone (see oestrogen) that was prescribed in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent miscarriage. It was subsequently found to increase the risk of cancers of the uterus, ovary, and breast, particularly the risk of *clear-cell carcinoma of the genital tract in the daughters of patients who were treated with it. Although licensed to treat breast cancer in postmenopausal women and prostate cancer, DES is rarely used because of its toxicity.
(clear-cell adenocarcinoma) a variant of *adenocarcinoma that tends to arise from the kidneys or the female genital tract. In the latter case it is linked to intrauterine exposure to *diethylstilbestrol during the 1950s and 1960s and takes the form of a vaginal cancer, which can be treated by radical surgery followed by radiotherapy.... clear-cell carcinoma
Health Encyclopedia