Prolactin: Its Physiologic Role and Therapeutic Potential

Abstract

Efforts to isolate this long-elusive hormone and to develop an assay capable of measuring serum levels have brought us a long way toward explaining its functions. At the same time, many new questions have arisen—not least that of prolactin's probable participation in the progression of breast cancer and the possibility that its suppression by pharmacologic and/or surgical means may be beneficial.