Abstract
Seventeen cases of endometriosis were treated with danazol at Nagoya National Hos-pital between 1978 and 1980. Most of the follow-up studies of this drug have been per-formed whthin five years after the treatment;reports over a 10-year period are very rare. However, 12 to 15 years have passed since the drug was administered to these pa-tients, so a relatively long-term follow-up was possible.
Findings showed that although short-term efficacy of the drug was excellent (94 per-cent), recurrence was common within two to five months after the therapy. Of the 17 cases, only five patients preserved both uterus and ovaries. Twelve underwent radical surgery after the treatment with this drug. One patient, who had surgery four years after the administration of danazol, was diagnosed with endometrioid carcinoma arising from an endometrial cyst. Her malignant tumor size was very small, but the patient died one year after her operation, due to a relapse in the retroperitoneal area.
Six pregnancies were observed in three patients, but only three live-births resulted.
The dramatic efficacy of danazol cannot be denied, but equally undeniable is its tran-sience. The real clnical value of the drug can only be determined in connection with a larger accumulation of data, after the treated patients have passed a climacteric period.
