Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy represents another type of systemic cancer treatment. Hormones are chemicals that the body produces naturally such as testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. These chemicals signal for certain actions such as growth and division of different cells in the body.
How does hormone therapy work?
Homes are proteins or substances made by the body that help to control how certain types of cells work. For example, insulin is a hormone that helps to regulate and control blood sugar. Some cancers depend on hormones to grow. Because of this, treatments that block or alter hormones can sometimes help slow or stop the growth of these cancers. Treating cancer with hormones is called hormone therapy, hormonal therapy, or endocrine therapy. In general, hormone therapy works either to 1) lower the amount of hormone available to bind to the receptors or 2) prevent the hormones from acting on the receptor, thereby minimizing the growth and spread of the cancer.
For what types of cancer is hormone therapy generally used?
Hormone therapy is mostly used to treat certain kinds of breast cancer and prostate cancer that depend on sex hormones to grow. Hormone therapy can be given in pill form and as an injectable.