Hormone therapy for prostate cancer

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Definition

By Mayo Clinic staff

Living With Cancer

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Hormone therapy for prostate cancer, also called androgen deprivation therapy, is treatment to stop your body from producing the male hormone testosterone. Prostate cancer cells rely on testosterone to help them grow. Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can cut off the supply of testosterone, causing cancer cells to die or to grow more slowly.

Hormone therapy for prostate cancer is most often used in men with advanced prostate cancer to shrink the cancer and slow the growth of tumors. In men with early-stage cancer, hormone therapy for prostate cancer may be used to shrink tumors before radiation therapy or surgery. Hormone therapy for prostate cancer is sometimes used after surgery or radiation therapy to slow the growth of any cancer cells left behind.

Why it's done
References
  1. Hormone therapy. Prostate Cancer Foundation. http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.5814015/k.91CD/Hormone_Therapy.htm. Accessed Dec. 8, 2010.
  2. Hormone (androgen deprivation) therapy. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/ProstateCancer/DetailedGuide/prostate-cancer-treating-hormone-therapy. Accessed Dec. 8, 2010.
  3. Treating prostate cancer. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports/?pageaction=displayproduct&productID=98. Accessed Dec. 8, 2010.
  4. Dawson NA. Overview of treatment for advanced prostate cancer. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2011.
  5. Boukaram C, et al. Management of prostate cancer recurrence after definitive radiation therapy. Cancer Treatment Reviews. 2010;36:91.
  6. Levine GN, et al. Androgen-deprivation therapy in prostate cancer and cardiovascular risk. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 2010;60:194.
MY01633 Feb. 24, 2011

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