Hypothalamic hormones: from neuroendocrinology to cancer therapy.

The discovery of hypothalamic hormones, especially LH-RH and somatostatin has led to practical clinical use of their analogs in the field of cancer treatment. Bombesin/GRP antagonists can be also considered for the development of new methods for treatment of various tumors. The understanding of functions of these peptide hormones and the availability of their synthetic analogs should permit the clinicians to treat a variety of cancers more successfully than in the past.