Sir: on the relative stability of steroidal 16, l'I-ketols toward alkali hydroxide and the unsuccessful attempts to isolate thermodynamically unstable 16-hydroxy 17-ketone, it has been considered impossible to isolate the ketol by hydrolysis of 16-bromo 17-ketone. Two types of reactions of 16-bromo 17-ketone with other nucleophiles have been known, the direct displacement of bromine with amines3 and thi~ acetate,~ leading
