New therapeutic approaches for endometriosis besides hormonal therapy

Fang-Ying Chen, Xi Wang, Rui-Yi Tang, Ruiyi Tang, Zai-Xin Guo, Zaixin Guo, Yu-Zhou-Jia Deng, Qi Yu
Chinese medical journal · 2019 · vol. 132(24) , pp. 2984–2993 · doi:10.1097/cm9.0000000000000569 · PMID:31809322 · W2991999910
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 35 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This review evaluated non-hormonal endometriosis treatments, finding some agents like pentoxifylline show potential despite limited clinical data for most.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disease that frequently leading to chronic pelvic pain, severe dysmenorrhea, and subfertility. As first-line hormonal treatment can interfere with ovulation and may cause recurrent pelvic pain, exploration of new non-hormonal therapeutic approaches becomes increasingly necessary. This review aimed to evaluate the pre-clinical and clinical efficacy and safety of non-hormonal treatment for endometriosis DATA SOURCES:: Databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, SINOMED, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar were searched up to October 2019, using search terms "endometriosis" and "non-hormonal therapy." STUDY SELECTION: Twenty-four articles were reviewed for analysis, including nine animal studies and 15 human trials; all were published in English. RESULTS: Twenty-four articles were identified, including 15 human trials with 861 patients and nine animal studies. Some agents have been evaluated clinically with significant efficacy in endometriosis-related pelvic pain and subfertility, such as rofecoxib, etanercept, pentoxifylline, N-palmitoylethanolamine, resveratrol, everolimus, cabergoline (Cb2), and simvastatin. Other drugs with similar pharmacological properties, like parecoxib, celecoxib, endostatin, rapamycin, quinagolide, and atorvastatin, have only been tested in animal studies. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical data about most of the non-hormonal agents are not sufficient to support them as options for replacement therapy for endometriosis. In spite of this, a few drugs like pentoxifylline showed strong potential for real clinical application.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrhea

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Animals Catechin Catechin Catechin Endometriosis Female Humans Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors Resveratrol Resveratrol Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (57)

Cited by (35)

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