195 BROMOCRIPTINE AND GROWTH HORMONE

Sn,—We read with interest the paper from Dr Sachdev and his colleagues (Dec. 13, p. 1164) describing their experience with bromocriptine therapy in acromegaly. We should like to report some preliminary results in a series of patients with cardnoma of the breast treated for varying periods of time with bromocriptine, which seem to indicate a differing effect of the drug on growth hormone (G.H.) levels in the two diseases. The 20 patients studied by us had stage-iv disseminated carcinoma of the breast and were all functionally postmenopausal (age-range 35 to 63). Previous hormone treatments had been given in many cases but had been discontinued for at least a month before administration of bromocriptine. Prolactin and growth-hormone measurements were available before and after treatment in 13 of the 20 patients. In 3 other patients post-treatment levels alone were measured. The daily dose was 7.5 mg given 8-hourly, as recommended by Sandoz. A small group of patients were treated with doses of up to 60 mg daily, but the higher doses did not produce a greater percentage fall in prolactin values, and G.H. levels were unchanged. We therefore continued to use the lower dose. The mean percentage drop in prolactin in ail patients in the group was 66% (range 50-89%), and this fall was statistically significant (p