Presented at Oxford Meeting 1987

Abstract

Aminoglutethimide is a non-steroidal inhibitor of several cytochrome P-450-dependent systems and is used in the therapy of oestrogen-dependent breast cancers in postmenopausal women, where it acts as an inhibitor of aromatase. The drug has been reported to alleviate bone pain in patients suffering from the primary metastatic disease (Harris et al. 1983) and also to relieve the bone pain in men suffering from advanced prostatic cancer (Rostom et al. 1982). Aminoglutethimide has also been reported to be comparable to flurbiprofen in lowering prostaglandin metabolite levels in breast cancer patients (Harris et al. 1983 The results indicate that aminoglutethimide interferes with the arachidonic acid cascade and this may be relevant to the drug's ability to relieve bone pain. As metastasis of some breast tumours has been linked to their synthesis of prostaglandins (Bennett, 1985), it is possible that the latter pathway may be an additional site for the action of aminoglutethimide.