TUESDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) -- The use of triptorelin to temporarily suppress ovarian function in patients with early stage breast cancer is associated with reduced occurrence of chemotherapy-induced early menopause, according to a study published in the July 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lucia Del Mastro, M.D., from the Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro in Genova, Italy, and colleagues evaluated the effect of triptorelin administered during chemotherapy in 281 young patients with stage I through III breast cancer who were candidates for adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, at 16 sites in Italy between October 2003 and January 2008. A total of 148 patients received 3.75 mg of triptorelin at least one week before chemotherapy began and then every four weeks for the duration of the chemotherapy, and 133 patients received chemotherapy alone. The main outcome measure was the incidence of early menopause.
The investigators found that the clinical and tumor characteristics of the two groups were similar. There was a significantly lower rate of early menopause observed 12 months after the last cycle of chemotherapy in the triptorelin with chemotherapy group compared to the chemotherapy alone group (8.9 versus 25.9 percent). Treatment with triptorelin was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing early menopause (odds ratio, 0.28).
"Temporarily suppressing ovarian function by administering triptorelin reduces the incidence of chemotherapy-induced early menopause," the authors write.
Two of the study authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including Ipsen, which provided the triptorelin used in the study.
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