What does hormone treatment for prostate cancer entail? And how effective is it?

When it comes to treating prostate cancer, patients have many different options. One is surgery. One is radiation therapy. And another is hormone therapy. And, while hormone treatments might not be the first treatment option patients suffering from cancer think of, hormone treatment for prostate cancer can be very effective.

What Is Hormone Therapy?

Hormones can do many things. And, unfortunately, two of the things some hormones do are make cancer cells grow, and enable cancer to move from the area initially affected to other parts of the body. The different kinds of hormone treatment for prostate cancer are designed to reduce these hormones.

Types of Hormone Treatment for Prostate Cancer

There are many different kinds of hormone treatments and medications that might be prescribed to a patient suffering from prostate cancer.

The medications used to decrease the levels of these hormones can be administered in several ways. The doctor might have their patient take it in the form of a pill. Or they might administer the medication intravenously. In either case, the medication will reduce the hormone levels, which will both keep the cancer from growing, and prevent the cancer from spreading to the rest of the body.

While these medications can be effective for a while, they are usually used in conjunction with other treatments. Why? Because, after a while, the body seems to grow immune to blockers in those medications, and they aren’t able to reduce the hormones as effectively as they were before. However, before then, hormone therapy can be pivotal in helping a patient to fight the cancer they are suffering from.

Another, more drastic hormone treatment for prostate cancer is to remove the testicles. The testicles produce hormones that are part of a chain reaction that can result in the growth of cancer cells, and cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Once the testicles are removed, the chain reaction screeches to a halt. Patients who undergo this procedure can often do without hormone treatments. However, due to the nature of this type of surgery, it is usually only used in drastic cases, such as those where the cancer has already begun to spread beyond the prostate.

Hormone treatment for prostate cancer can be very effective. Patients should talk to their doctor about this option, as well as learning which treatments work best in conjunction with hormone therapy.