Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hirsutism is the presence of excess terminal hair in women with a male pattern. Most cases of hirsutism are secondary to other disease but some of cases are idiopathic. The most accepted hypothesis for the development of hirsutism is increased 5-α reductase activity in skin. Based on this hypothesis, we have launched this study to evaluate the effects of Finasteride cream (a 5-α reductase inhibitor) on idiopathic hirsutism.

Methods: Forty cases of idiopathic hirsutism, have received 0.2% Finasteride cream twice a day for 6 months on their chins. Mean thickness of three hair samples for each patients were measured before therapy and after 6 months. Ferryman – gallwey score for the chin area was also defined.

Results: Mean hair thickness was decreased from 1.4±0.89 μm to 0.96±0.83 μm (P<0.001). Mean Ferryman – Gallwey score was also decreased from 3.2±0.41 to 2.2±0.76 (P<0.001). Acne was reported by 8 patients (20%) during the therapy. There were no other side effects.

Conclusion: Finasteride cream is an efficient and harmless therapy in patients with idiopathic hirsutism. Breast cancer cells may present a number of resistance mechanisms to conventional therapy, and therefore new treatments are under evaluation. The histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDI) valproic acid (VPA) is of particular interest, since having been used for a long time in neurological patients its side-effects and tolerability are well known. We have recently.