Management of precocious puberty in girls with McCune–Albright syndrome using letrozole

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of letrozole in girls with progressive precocious puberty (PP) associated with McCune–Albright syndrome (MAS). DESIGN: Monocentric retrospective cross-sectional and longitudinal study of consecutive patients. PATIENTS: Ten MAS patients treated at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between September 1999 and December 2017 were retrospectively reviewed; those with complications due to PP were followed. RESULTS: The mean age at letrozole initiation was 4.5 ± 2.6 years, while the mean duration of treatment was 3.3 ± 2.4 years. Letrozole was highly effective at decreasing the rate of skeletal maturation, with a significant decrease in the bone age-to-chronological age (BA/CA) ratio from 1.9 ± 1.1 pre-treatment to 1.5 ± 1.2 on letrozole treatment (P = 0.016). Moreover, growth velocity Z-scores declined from 0.41 ± 0.5 to −0.2 ± 0.31 with treatment (P < 0.001). Predicted adult height Z-scores increased significantly from −2.03 ± 2.33 at baseline to 1.13 ± 0.84 following treatment initiation (P = 0.029). Moreover, vaginal bleeding declined significantly on letrozole. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that letrozole may be an effective therapy in some girls with MAS, as treatment results in improved BA/CA ratio, growth velocity and predicted adult height. Possible adverse effects include nettle rash.