Hormone Therapy Prostate Cancer: How Does it Work?

Hormone therapy prostate cancer has developed as an effective treatment over the past decades. It has eliminated the need for surgery for many men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The hormones can be taken as pills, injected or implanted.

Like many cancer treatments, hormone therapy for prostate cancer has some limitations. It is effective in slowing the growth of the cancer, and so is mostly used in patients whose cancer has recurred or spread to other areas of the body.

While it is not a cure, it can improve the quality of life for the patient and add years to their life expectancy. The average time the hormones can halt the advance of the cancer is currently between two and three years, although this varies between patients; your actual result could be longer.

Hormone therapy was first discovered to be effective more than sixty years ago by the scientist, Charles Huggins. He found that by reducing male hormones in the body, the spread of prostate cancer could be slowed considerably. His method was more drastic than the modern hormone therapy methods, but his work paved the way for the successful treatments available today.

Charles Huggins' research found that there are some prostate cancer cells that require particular male hormones, androgens, to grow and spread. Hormone therapy either prevents the body making the androgens or works by blocking them. Both these methods cause the level of androgens in the body to fall and this slows the growth of the cancer cells.

Hormone therapy is not only effective at slowing the growth and spread of prostate cancer; in 85 to 90 percent of cases, the therapy shrinks the actual tumor. Unfortunately, not all prostate cancer cells need androgens to grow and so hormone therapy is not a cure. The cells that are not dependant on hormones will continue to grow, and so the hormone therapy will no longer be effective and other treatments will be necessary.

There are different types of hormone therapy used for prostate cancer treatment:

• LHRH – Luteininzing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Agonists: - these stop the production of testosterone in the testicles. This is administered by injection regularly, one month to four months apart. A newer drug is implanted in the arm and lasts for twelve months.

• Anti-androgens: - these are aimed at the male hormones made in the adrenal glands. While they don't prevent the hormones being produced, they do prevent them from affecting the cancer cells. These drugs have fewer side effects than the LHRH drugs and are taken as daily pills, rather than injections. The anti-androgens make a significant difference to the quality of life for advanced prostate cancer patients.

• Combined Androgen Blockade: - this combination of LHRH agonists and anti-androgens affects the hormones made in the testicles and the adrenal glands at the same time, although this can increase the side-effects.

• Estrogen: - synthetic estrogens are also an option for treating prostate cancer, and were one of the early forms of hormone therapy for this disease. They have cardiovascular side effects are usually only used when other treatment options have failed.

• Other drugs: - oncologists have a small range of other drugs they can use.

Working out the most effective hormone therapy prostate cancer for the individual patient can be difficult, and doctors have to assess each case individually to determine the best approach. This type of therapy is being tested in conjunction with the traditional cancer treatments of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.