Hormone Therapy

The experts at Cancer Treatment Centers of America use hormone therapy (also called hormonal therapy) for both prostate cancer and breast cancer. This type of treatment is used to keep cancer cells from getting the hormones they need to grow. Hormones are chemicals produced by glands in your body, and are circulated in the bloodstream. Estrogen and progesterone are hormones that affect the way some cancers grow. If tests show that your cancer cells have estrogen, progesterone, and/or testosterone receptors (molecules found in some cancer cells to which estrogen and progesterone will attach), hormone therapy is used to block the way these hormones help the cancer grow. This treatment may include the use of drugs that change the way hormones work, or surgery to remove the ovaries that make female hormones, or the testicles, which produce male hormones.

Hormone therapy with tamoxifen is often given to women with early stages of breast cancer and those with metastatic breast cancer (cancer that has spread to other parts of the body). Hormone therapy with tamoxifen or estrogens can act on cells all over the body and may increase the chance of developing endometrial cancer (the endometrium is the inner lining of the uterus). If you are taking tamoxifen, you should have a pelvic examination every year to look for any signs of cancer. You should also report any vaginal bleeding, other than menstrual bleeding, to your doctor as soon as possible.

Like chemotherapy, hormonal therapy is a systemic treatment; it can affect cancer cells throughout the body. When a man undergoes hormone therapy, the level of male hormones is decreased. This drop in hormone level can affect all prostate cancer cells, even if they have spread to other parts of the body.

There are several forms of hormone therapy for prostate cancer. One is surgery to remove the testicles. This operation, called orchiectomy, eliminates the main source of male hormones.

The use of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist is another type of hormone therapy. LHRH agonists prevent your testicles from producing testosterone.

In another form of hormone therapy, your CTCA care team may advise you to take the female hormone estrogen, to stop your testicles from producing testosterone.

After orchiectomy or treatment with an LHRH agonist or estrogen, your body will no longer get testosterone from your testicles. However, your adrenal glands still produce small amounts of male hormones. You may also be given an antiandrogen, a drug that blocks the effect of any remaining male hormones. This combination of treatment is known as a total androgen blockade.

If you have prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of your body, it can usually be controlled with hormone therapy for a period of time, often several years. Eventually, however, most prostate cancers are able to grow with very little or no male hormones. When this happens, hormone therapy is no longer effective, and your doctor may suggest other forms of treatment.