Use of analogues of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone for the treatment of cancer.

an antagonist of LH-RH which could be used primarily as an antifertility agent in men and women. Like a number of other biologically potent molecules the unexpected results provided by LH-RH and its agonistic analogues changed both the impetus and direction of research. The finding that potent analogues of LH-RH would prevent puberty when given continuously to immature female rats and would cause ovarian and uterine atrophy in mature rats (Johnson, Gendrich & White, 1976; Vale, Rivier, Rivier & Brown, 1977) prompted a rapid re-appraisal of the therapeutic potential of these agents. The paradoxical anti-gonadal effect was not confined to the female since potent analogues of LH-RH were shown to prevent sexual maturation in the male, to reduce the weights of the testes and accessory sex organs, and to arrest spermatogenesis and decrease plasma androgens (Oshima et al, 1975; Auclair, Kelly, Labrie, Coy & Schally, 1977; Vale et al, 1977; Pelletier et al, 1978; Tcholakian et al, 1978; Rivier, Riviera Vale, 1979). Although prevention of conception remains a very important potential use for potent LH-RH analogues, a number of problems will have to be overcome before such agents reach the stage of extensive clinical trial. In the shorter term exploitation of the castration-like effects produced by LH-RH analogues will be in the treatment of precocious puberty, endometriosis and benign and malignant diseases of the breast and prostate. Since clinical trials are now beginning with these agents in the treatment of hormone-responsive tumours, it is timely to describe data from tumour models in animals which support the belief that analogues of LH-RH may well prove clinically effective.