Chemistry and Molecular Biology in the Search for New LHRH Antagonists

Hormones—and in particular, the sex hormones—were the first growth factors discovered to be involuntary helpers of cancer. Female breast cancer and male prostate cancer are the best known examples of tumors acknowledged to be hormone-dependent. A look at cancer statistics shows that breast cancer is still the most frequent cancer in women; in men, prostate cancer plays a similarly dominant role with increasing age. Shutting down the main production site of the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone either by removing the ovaries or by castration is a well-known and often effective therapy; however, these procedures can be problematic due to the concomittant psychological stress. Modern hormone therapy for advanced breast cancer and prostate cancer attempts to spare the patient such irreversible operative procedures for as long as possible, by using hormone antagonists, such as the LHRH antagonists, which hinder deployment of the hormone itself and thus its growth-promoting activity.