HORMONE THERAPY
From the onset of puberty, prostate cells
divide and grow because of the male hormone testosterone, which is produced
primarily in the testicles. Prostate cancer depends on male hormones,
especially testosterone, to help it grow.
Research has shown that reducing or “withdrawing” these hormones
will cause prostate tumours to shrink.
Hormone therapy works by getting rid of the testosterone made in the
testicles and blocking its action – thereby starving the prostate cancer of
the “food” it needs to grow. If the cancer has spread outside your prostate
gland to other parts of your body (metastasized), hormone therapy can be
used to slow the growth and reduce the size of your tumour. While hormone therapy can’t cure the
cancer, it can sometimes improve the benefit of local treatment (surgery,
radiation).
There are three different types of hormone
therapy:
Orchiectomy
This is surgery to remove both
testicles. It stops 90 – 95% of
male hormone production. This
surgery has few complications.
Luteinizing Hormone – Releasing Hormone
(LH-RH) Agonists
This group of medications eliminate the
body’s production of testosterone.
They are injected once a month or once every three months. When used alone, these drugs stop the
normal production of testosterone.
These drugs produce few side effects except for hot flashes,
and other menopause-like symptoms.
Antiandrogens
Several types of antiandrogens are
available for treating prostate cancer.
The most commonly used antiandrogens bind
to prostate cancer cell and prevent androgens from getting into the cell to
promote its growth, the do not stop the body from manufacturing
testosterone and so some of the side effects of low testosterone can be
avoided. Often, they are used together with CH-RH since they work by
a different mechanism. These drops have there own side effects.
The most common are breast enlargement and nipple tenderness.
Hormone therapy does not cure prostate
cancer but it can slow the progression of the disease. At some point, treatment with hormone
therapy may stop working. The cancer cells become resistant and begin to
grow again. This is called hormone
resistant or hormone refactory metastatic prostate cancer. If this happens, hormone therapy may be
stopped.
OTHER TREATMENT OPTIONS
Chemotherapy
This treatment injects drugs into the
veins. The drugs flow through the
blood to all parts of your body to damage and kill cancer cells. This treatment option may be useful for
advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.
Again, side effects can occur when
the drugs damage healthy cells at the same time as the cancer cells. These side effects will go away with
time as the body replaces the damaged cells.
Cryosurgery
This treatment kills cancer by freezing
it. Complications are usually temporary
and restricted to organs around the prostate that may also freeze. Currently this form of therapy has very
limited use.
Thermotherapy
This treatment uses microwave technology to
heat the prostate to kill cancer cells.
This method is often used to treat men whose cancer has recurred
after radiation therapy, but not yet spread outside their prostate. Currently this therapy is considered
experimental in the treatment of prostate cancer.
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