Many breast tumours are dependent upon
oestrogen for their development and continued growth. Over the last 25 years hormone therapy has progressed from the irreversible destruction of
endocrine glands to the use of drugs that reversibly suppress oestrogen synthesis or action. The inhibition of oestrogen synthesis is most readily achieved by inhibiting the final step in the pathway of oestrogen biosynthesis, the reaction which transforms androgens into oestrogens by creating an aromatic ring in the steroid molecule (hence the enzyme's trivial name, aromatase).Whereas the first
aromatase inhibitors to be used therapeutically could be shown to produce drug-induced inhibition of the enzyme and…
