Effects of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist on rat ovarian adenocarcinoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo

To evaluate the biologic effects of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnR H) agonist buserelin on rat ovarian adenocarcinoma cells in vivo and in vit ro, female Wistar rats with primary ovarian adenocarcinoma induced by 7, 12 -dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) and the DMBA-OC-1 cell line established f rom a DMBA-induced rat tumor were used in this study, In vivo, daily admini stration of buserelin significantly suppressed the release of follicle-stim ulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and progesterone as compar ed with controls. Buserelin did not inhibit the growth of DMBA-induced tumo rs, However, histopathologically, there was increased central necrosis and a decrease in the number of neoplastic cells, with proliferation of connect ive tissue, in the group treated with buserelin, In vitro, FSH-induced prol iferation of DMBA-OC-1 cells was suppressed by buserelin. Thus, this basic experimental study supports the potential use of a GnRH agonist to suppress the growth of ovarian cancer.