About the Treatment
Hormonal therapy may be used to treat cancers that may otherwise grow in response to hormones that are already naturally produced by your body. Hormonal therapy involves the use of increasing or decreasing hormones that cancers may use to grow. Most instances of hormone therapy for breast cancer either lower estrogen levels or stop estrogen completely from acting on breast cancer cells.
The hormonal treatments work by either blocking the action of the hormone on the cancer cells or by reducing the production of the particular hormone in your body. This means that there is less of the hormone to stimulate the cancer cell’s growth.
The two cancer types that are most commonly treated with hormonal therapy are breast cancer and prostate cancer. Occasionally this treatment can be used in other cancers as well. However, not all breast cancers or prostate cancers are suitable for this particular therapy treatment. If this is the case, your specialist will discuss with you the reasons that your tumour is not suitable for hormonal therapy and talk about alternative and more suitable treatment options for you.
Some hormone treatments are given in a tablet form and others are administered via injections. The therapy itself may be used to either shrink the size of your cancer, control it or even as an adjacent treatment to reduce the risk of it returning after surgery or other curative treatment.
The timing of your hormone treatment in relation to your other cancer treatments will be discussed with you by your specialist, who will also talk through the potential side effects, providing you with written information and support on the recommended treatment most suited to your cancer.
There are a number of different types of cancer treatments that can be used on their own or in combination with another. How and when different treatments are used depends completely on the type of cancer we are treating and the intent of the treatment.
If you want to know more about hormonal therapy and if you would like to discuss it further and consider your options, please ask your specialist.
”My first meeting with Dr. Sarah Khan filled me with reassurance, confidence and hope that I could face and tackle the battle that lay ahead.” Linda Lancashire – Breast Cancer Patient