Hormone therapy
Some breast and prostate cancers depend on hormones to grow. This treatment slows or stops their growth.
What is hormone therapy?
Some cancers need hormones to grow. Hormone therapy either stops the body making the hormone or changes how it acts. It is used for some breast and prostate cancers, and most often together with other treatments.
When is it used?
- Before surgery or radiotherapy, to shrink a tumour
- After the main treatment, to lower the chance of the disease returning
- When cancer has returned or spread
- To ease symptoms in men with prostate cancer who cannot have surgery or radiotherapy
How is it given?
- Pills
- Injections into a muscle or under the skin
- Surgery: removing an organ that makes the hormone, the ovaries in women or the testicles in men
Side effects
Side effects depend on the person, the type of therapy and the dose.
In men with prostate cancer: hot flushes, lower sex drive or sexual problems, weaker bones, diarrhoea, nausea, breast enlargement or tenderness, tiredness and weight gain.
In women with breast cancer: hot flushes, vaginal dryness, changes to periods in women who have not reached menopause, lower interest in sex, nausea, mood changes and tiredness.
Raise these with your doctor. Talking about them is part of treatment.
How is the effect measured?
In prostate cancer, with the PSA test; a rising level can show the treatment no longer works. In breast cancer, with regular check-ups and mammograms.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as menopausal hormone therapy?
No. Here the aim is to stop hormones acting on the cancer, not to replace missing hormones.
How long must I continue?
It depends on the type of cancer and your plan. Ask your doctor, and do not stop the medicine yourself.
The first step, a review of your records.
Go to the booking page or talk to support. Have your pathology report and scans ready.