Short term effects of flutamide administration on hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis in man.

The effect of short term administration of flutamide on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis was studied in six patients with advanced prostate cancer (C2 stage). Flutamide significantly increased LH pulse frequency in all patients (p less than 0.05 by Wilcoxon's test). The FSH pulse analysis disclosed a similar pattern of LH. Plasma IC-T clearly increased following flutamide therapy; mean IC-T values were 2.67 +/- 0.47 ng./ml. and 4.67 +/- 0.62 ng./ml. before and after flutamide administration, respectively (p less than 0.05 by paired Student's t test). Our study demonstrates that flutamide acts in humans as a selective and specific antiandrogen compound.