Hormone Therapy And Prostate Cancer

Secondary Treatment Following Relapse

Hormone therapy may also be used as a secondary or salvage treatment when PSA levels rise following initial prostate cancer treatment, indicating the cancer has returned. This situation is known as biochemical recurrence. The salient points to keep in mind are that hormone therapy is most often used as a salvage treatment when PSA doubling time is less than six months, indicating that the cancer is aggressive or may have already metastasized.

Are There Side Effects With Hormone Therapy

Yes, there are side effects or unwanted changes in your body caused by hormone therapy. Side effects are different from person to person, and may be different from one treatment to the next. Some people have no or very mild side effects. The good news is that there are ways to deal with most of the side effects. The side effects that you have depend on:

The side effects you have from hormone therapy may be acute or chronic. Acute side effects are sometimes called “early side effects.” These types of side effects happen soon after the treatment begins and usually go away after you finish your hormone therapy. Other side effects are called chronic side effects or “late side effects.” These side effects may happen several months after you start hormone therapy.

In order to reduce your chance of having side effects, your doctor may give you intermittent hormone therapy. If you are on intermittent hormone therapy, your doctor and health care team will carefully watch your PSA level. As it begins to go up, you are given hormone therapy medicine to lower your PSA. Another way for you to get intermittent hormone therapy is to take a medicine for a set period of time and then stop for a set period of time. For example, you may take a medicine for six months, stop for six months, and then start again for six months.

How Researchers Measure Quality Of Life

How we each define quality of life is, admittedly, rather subjective. But researchers have developed several questionnaires for use in clinical trials to try to assess quality of life. Some of the tools, such as the RAND 36-Item Health Survey, the Functional Assessment of Cancer TherapyGeneral , and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 questionnaire, pose about 30 to 40 general questions related to physical health and emotional well-being, or ask respondents to indicate the degree to which they agree with various statements. For example:

During the past week, have you had trouble sleeping?

___ Not at all

Recommended Reading: Natural Hormone Replacement During Menopause

Early Versus Delayed Treatment

For men who need hormone therapy, such as men whose PSA levels are rising after surgery or radiation or men with advanced prostate cancer who dont yet have symptoms, its not always clear when it is best to start hormone treatment. Some doctors think that hormone therapy works better if its started as soon as possible, even if a man feels well and is not having any symptoms. Some studies have shown that hormone treatment may slow the disease down and perhaps even help men live longer.

But not all doctors agree with this approach. Some are waiting for more evidence of benefit. They feel that because of the side effects of hormone therapy and the chance that the cancer could become resistant to therapy sooner, treatment shouldnt be started until a man has symptoms from the cancer. This issue is being studied.

Mental And Emotional Health

A cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment may affect how you feel mentally and emotionally. Hormone therapy can cause:

• A drop in mental sharpness

If you have any of these side effects, your doctor may recommend medication, counseling, or both.

Research shows that hormone therapy for prostate cancer may lead to problems with short-term memory, language, thinking, and concentration. But these problems are usually mild. Researchers are still studying the effect of hormone therapy on the brain.

When you stop taking hormone therapy, emotional and mental side effects usually disappear. But if youâve taken the drugs for many years, they may not fully go away.

Show Sources

You May Like: Women’s Hormone Support Supplement

How Might Hormone Therapy Make Me Feel

Hormone therapy itself can affect your mood. You may find that you feel more emotional than usual or just different to how you felt before. Some men find that they cry a lot. You may also get mood swings, such as getting tearful and then angry. Just knowing that these feelings are caused by hormone therapy can help.

Everyones different some men are surprised by the side effects and how upsetting they find them. Others have fewer symptoms or are not as worried by them.

Some of the other side effects of hormone therapy are hard to come to terms with. Physical changes, such as putting on weight, or changes to your sex life, might make you feel very different about yourself. Some men say they feel less masculine because of their diagnosis and treatment.

If youre starting hormone therapy very soon after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, you might still feel upset, shocked, frightened or angry about having cancer. These feelings are normal, and it’s okay to feel this way.

Things in your day-to-day life can change because of the hormone therapy. Your relationships with your partner, family and friends might change. Or you might be too tired to do some of the things you used to do.

Some men experience low moods, anxiety or depression. This could be directly caused by the hormone therapy itself, or because you’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It could also be due to the impact that treatment is having on you and your family.

What can help?

Talking about it

Cancers Treated With Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy is used to treat prostate and breast cancers that use hormones to grow. Hormone therapy is most often used along with other cancer treatments. The types of treatment that you need depend on the type of cancer, if it has spread and how far, if it uses hormones to grow, and if you have other health problems.

Read Also: How Do You Know If Testosterone Is Low

Why Does Hormone Therapy Cause Side Effects

If testosterone is taken away or blocked by hormone therapy, prostate cancer cells will usually shrink, wherever they are in the body. But reducing or blocking testosterone can cause other things to change in your body too.

Testosterone controls the development and growth of the sexual organs, including the prostate, and affects the way you think and feel. It also controls other male characteristics, such as erections and muscle strength. So when testosterone is reduced, or taken away by hormone therapy, all of these things can change.

The diagram below shows how testosterone affects a man’s body. Knowing this can help you understand what side effects you might get when you’re having hormone therapy.

The side effects of hormone therapy are caused by lowered testosterone levels. Side effects will usually last for as long as you are on hormone therapy. If you stop your hormone therapy, your testosterone levels will gradually rise again and some side effects will reduce. Your side effects wont stop as soon as you finish hormone therapy it may take several months.

Surgery to remove the testicles cant be reversed, so the side effects are permanent. But there are treatments that can help reduce or manage some of the side effects.

What Types Of Hormone Therapy Are Used For Prostate Cancer

Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can block the production or use of androgens . Currently available treatments can do so in several ways:

• reducing androgen production by the testicles
• blocking the action of androgens throughout the body
• block androgen production throughout the body

Treatments that reduce androgen production by the testicles are the most commonly used hormone therapies for prostate cancer and the first type of hormone therapy that most men with prostate cancer receive. This form of hormone therapy includes:

Treatments that block the action of androgens in the body are typically used when ADT stops working. Such treatments include:

Treatments that block the production of androgens throughout the body include:

Also Check: Female Hormone Test For Weight Loss

Hormonal Therapy For Aggressive Prostate Cancer: How Long Is Enough

• By Charlie Schmidt, Editor, Harvard Medical School Annual Report on Prostate Diseases

Men weighing treatment options for intermediate- or high-risk cancer that is still localized to the prostate can face a tricky question. A standard approach in these cases is to give radiation to the prostate along with drugs that block testosterone, a hormone that makes the cancer cells grow faster. For how long should this hormone therapy last? Thats not entirely clear. The drugs have side effects, such as fatigue, impotence, and a loss of muscle mass. But radiation doesnt control prostate cancer effectively without them. Doctors therefore aim to give hormone therapy only for as long as it takes to help their patients, without causing any undue harm.

Now, newly published results from a phase 3 clinical trial are providing some needed guidance.

Hormone Therapy And Radiation Therapy In Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer

RATIONALE: Hormones can stimulate the growth of prostate cancer cells. Hormone therapy may fight prostate cancer by reducing the production of androgens. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. It is not yet known which regimen of hormone therapy and radiation therapy is more effective for prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of two different regimens of hormone therapy and radiation therapy in treating patients who have prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to prostate-specific antigen level , tumor stage , Gleason score , and prior hormonal therapy . Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 4 years, and then annually thereafter.

Don’t Miss: Diet To Lose Hormonal Belly Fat

Treatment To Lower Testicular Androgen Levels

Androgen deprivation therapy, also called ADT, uses surgery or medicines to lower the levels of androgens made by the testicles.

Orchiectomy

Even though this is a type of surgery, its main effect is as a form of hormone therapy. In this operation, the surgeon removes the testicles, where most of the androgens are made. This causes most prostate cancers to stop growing or shrink for a time.

This is done as an outpatient procedure. It is probably the least expensive and simplest form of hormone therapy. But unlike some of the other treatments, it is permanent, and many men have trouble accepting the removal of their testicles. Because of this, they may choose treatment with drugs that lower hormone levels instead.

Some men having this surgery are concerned about how it will look afterward. If wanted, artificial testicles that look much like normal ones can be inserted into the scrotum.

LHRH agonists

Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists are drugs that lower the amount of testosterone made by the testicles. Treatment with these drugs is sometimes called medical castration because they lower androgen levels just as well as orchiectomy.

With these drugs, the testicles stay in place, but they will shrink over time, and they may even become too small to feel.

• Leuprolide mesylate

LHRH antagonists

Possible side effects

Many side effects of hormone therapy can be prevented or treated. For example:

Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer

If the cancer has reached an advanced stage, it’s no longer possible to cure it. But it may be possible to slow its progression, prolong your life and relieve symptoms.

Treatment options include:

• hormone treatment

If the cancer has spread to your bones, medicines called bisphosphonates may be used. Bisphosphonates help reduce bone pain and bone loss.

Don’t Miss: How To Stop Hormonal Imbalance Bleeding

Side Effects Of Hormone Treatment

The loss of testosterone that hormone therapy causes leads to side effects in nearly all men. These can include:

• Trouble getting an erection
• Less interest in sex
• Breast growth and tenderness
• Thinking changes and memory loss
• Thinning of bones
• Depression and mood swings

Other side effects depend on the type of hormone therapy you get. For instance, anti-androgens tend to have less effect on your sex life. But they can cause diarrhea, tiredness, and liver problems.

Most side effects go away over time after treatment ends. That’s not the case with testicle-removal surgery, though. Its side effects are permanent.

Your doctor can treat many of the side effects. And there are things you can do to help prevent some of them. You might take statins to help control your blood cholesterol, or calcium supplements to help with bone problems.

Talk to your treatment team so you know what to expect when you’re on hormone therapy. Tell them about any changes you notice. Treating side effects right away can keep them from getting worse.

What Have I Learned By Reading This

You learned about:

If you have any questions, please talk to your doctor or healthcare team. It is important that you understand what is going on with your treatment. This knowledge will help you take better care of yourself and feel more in control so that you can get the most from your treatment..

• The results of any tests you have taken such as your Prostate-Specific Antigen test.
• When you found out you had prostate cancer.
• Information on the kinds of treatment you have had for your prostate cancer including:
• The places and dates where you had your treatment.
• What type of treatment you had. And,
• Any medicines you took before, during, and after your prostate cancer treatment.

• What hormone therapy is

Also Check: How To Control Hunger Hormones

Hormonal Therapy On Its Own

Doctors do not usually advise having hormonal therapy instead of a prostatectomy or radiotherapy. Hormonal therapy alone cannot cure early or locally-advanced prostate cancer.

Depending on your general health and preferences, you may decide to have hormonal therapy on its own. For example, if you:

• are not well enough to have a prostatectomy or radiotherapy
• do not want to have a prostatectomy or radiotherapy
• are monitoring prostate cancer, for example having watchful waiting and the cancer starts to grow.

Hormonal therapy can slow down or stop the cancer cells growing for many years. It can also improve any symptoms. Not having surgery or radiotherapy means you avoid the side effects of these treatments. But hormonal therapy also causes side effects. It is important to talk to your doctor or nurse before you decide.

What Will I Learn By Reading This

You and your doctor may be talking about using hormone therapy to control your prostate cancer. It is important for you to learn about hormone therapy so that you will know what to expect and how best to take care of yourself before, during, and after treatment. You will learn:

It is important to think about how you will work these things into your everyday life if you and your doctor decide that hormone therapy is the best way for you to control your prostate cancer..

Also Check: What Is Hormone Replacement Treatment

When Is Hormone Therapy Used

Hormone therapy may be used:

• If the cancer has spread too far to be cured by surgery or radiation, or if you cant have these treatments for some other reason
• If the cancer remains or comes back after treatment with surgery or radiation therapy
• Along with radiation therapy as the initial treatment, if you are at higher risk of the cancer coming back after treatment
• Before radiation to try to shrink the cancer to make treatment more effective

Hot Flushes And Sweating

Hot flushes and sweating can be troublesome. They may last for 2 to 30 minutes and you may have a few a month or more often. They are the same as the hot flushes women have when going through menopause.

Lowered testosterone levels cause hot flushes. They are most likely to happen when taking LHRH agonists, also called LH blockers , because these drugs cut testosterone production off altogether.

Getting overheated, drinking tea or coffee, and smoking can all make flushes worse.

They may gradually get better as you get used to the treatment. But, in some men the flushes keep on happening as long as you take the drug.

Talk to your doctor or clinical nurse specialist if you have problems coping with hot flushes and sweating. There are treatments that may help.

You May Like: Best Herbs For Balancing Hormones

Different Approaches To Starting Hormone Therapy

Experts debate how early treatment with hormone therapy should be started. Some argue that the benefits of hormone therapy for prostate cancer should be offered to men earlier in the course of the disease. Others assert that there’s little evidence that getting treatment early is better than getting it later.

“Unfortunately, there are still some doctors who are offering hormonal therapy earlier in the course of the disease than is commonly recommended,” Brooks says. Given that the side effects can be serious, Brooks argues that starting treatment with hormone therapy so early may not be a good idea.

However, Holden argues that early treatment may be helpful. “I think one of the reasons that the death rate from prostate cancer is going down is that we’re using hormone therapy early,” he tells WebMD. “We haven’t proved that early treatment improves overall survival yet, but I think we will.”

Researchers are also looking at “intermittent therapy,” starting and stopping hormone treatment for months at a time. The big advantage is that men could go off therapy temporarily and thus be free of the side effects. Early study results have been promising.