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Medical therapy with somatostatin analogues for acromegaly

The isolation, characterization and subsequent synthesis of a somatotropin-releasing factor (SRIH) in 1973 was logically and promptly followed by the demonstration of its application in clinical studies in acromegalic patients (1). Inhibition of growth hormone (GH) secretion was obtained by continuous intravenous infusion of the native peptide, which unfortunately has an ultra-short biological half-life. Despite the attraction for endocrinologists of a therapy that acts specifically at the cellular level, in contrast to the relative crudeness of ablative therapy for pituitary adenomas, this potential treatment remained undeveloped for another 10 years. Further progress had to wait until analogues with enhanced stability and higher specificity for GH inhibition became available. The considerable success of this "new treatment for an old disease" (2) is reflected by the number of papers (more than 35) published between 1985 and 1992, reporting the effects of treatment with somatostatin analogues (3–6). A new era was opened with

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