What is Hormone Therapy?

Hormone therapy is a treatment used to address many forms of cancer that rely on hormones to develop fully. Naturally, hormones are types of chemicals that coordinate various functions of the body. Some forms of cancer, like breast cancer and prostate cancer, rely on hormones to thrive. For example, breast cancer feeds off hormones such as progesterone and oestrogen, which are usually required for the cancer to develop and migrate to other bodily regions. Conversely, prostate cancer requires male hormones such as dihydrotestosterone and testosterone to grow and spread to other areas of the body. Fortunately, hormone therapy restricts access to these hormones, hindering the full development of the tumour.

There are various types of hormone therapy, depending on the type of cancer, such as follows:

For breast cancer, treatment works as follows:

• For breast cancer, aromatase inhibitors are used, which are ideally indicated for women who have gone through menopause. Aromatase inhibitors inactivate aromatase, an enzyme which helps convert androgen to oestrogen.
• Selective oestrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) obstruct oestrogen from the breast and stimulate the availability of the hormone to the bones.

Concerning prostate cancer, treatment includes the following:

• Androgen deprivation therapy can be injected or placed beneath the skin as an implant. As a result, the therapy works by minimising the amount of testosterone made by the testicles.
• Androgen blockers are administered in pill form, which helps restrict male hormones from enabling the tumour to grow.

Treatment for endometrial cancer is as follows:

• Hormone therapy is primarily considered for an advanced stage of endometrial or uterine cancer or recurrent cancer. Normally, in this case, hormone therapy is used in conjunction with chemotherapy. Therefore, with hormone therapy, artificial progestins mimic the function of progesterone, which helps slow the development of endometrial tumours.