Hormonal Therapy

What is Hormonal Therapy?

Hormones can present challenges when it comes to cancer treatment. Some cancers are fed by hormones, helping them grow and spread more quickly. Breast cancers for example, are often fueled by estrogen and/or progesterone and prostate cancers rely on Androgen. To counter this, treatments that block or alter hormones can help slow or stop the growth of these cancers. Treating cancer with hormones is called hormone therapy, hormonal therapy, or endocrine therapy.

Hormone therapy is a systemic treatment because the hormones they target circulate in the body. The drugs used in hormone therapy travel throughout the body to find the hormones. This makes it different from other treatments that affect only a certain part of the body, such as most types of cancer surgery and radiation therapy. Treatments like these are called local treatments because they affect one part of the body.

How is it Given?

Hormone therapy may be given in many ways. Some common ways include:

• Oral. It comes in pills that you swallow.
• Injection. It is given by a shot in a muscle in your arm, thigh, or hip, or right under the skin in the fatty part of your arm, leg, or belly.
• Surgery. You may have surgery to remove organs that produce hormones. In women, the ovaries are removed. In men, the testicles are removed.

How Does it Work?

It changes the hormonal atmosphere in the body, which impacts the growth and behavior of some breast cancers.

This therapy is useful if a person's cancer makes one of the hormone receptors, estrogen or progesterone. If either of these receptors is positive, then hormone therapies can be used to treat early-stage cancer, to prevent recurrence, and to treat metastatic or advanced disease.

What are the Side Effects?

Any disruption to the balance of hormones can cause side effects. The specific side effects that come from blocking a person’s estrogen, progesterone or androgen production will depend on the person and the type of therapy they receive. Some common side effects people experience are:

How Can Providers Tell if it is Working?

Testing and imaging are used to monitor the tumor. Men with prostate cancer will be given regular blood tests called prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests to measure their hormones.

Breast Cancer patients receive mammograms, ultrasounds or MRIs, and lab tests. For prostate and breast cancers, doctors monitor hormone levels in the blood. If the levels increase during therapy or if the tumor grows, doctors will know that hormonal therapy is not working. If hormone levels and the tumor size have decreased, then the therapy is having a positive effect.

Talk with your oncologists about whether hormonal therapy is right for you. If you are considering a specific hormonal therapy, read the information sheet for that drug. It will answer questions about how to take the medication, the correct dosage, and potential side effects.

Your physician or nurse can answer any specific questions you may have.