Hormone therapy is a treatment that slows or stops the growth of breast and prostate cancers that use hormones to grow. Learn about the types of hormone therapy and side effects that may happen.

Treating cancer with hormones is called hormone therapy, hormonal therapy, or endocrine therapy. Hormone therapy is mostly used to treat certain kinds of breast cancer and prostate cancer that depend on sex hormones to grow.

Dec 6, 2022 · Hormone therapy is most often used to treat common menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes and vaginal discomfort. Hormone therapy has also been proved to prevent bone loss and reduce fracture in postmenopausal women. However, there are risks associated with using hormone therapy.

Sep 11, 2024 · Hormones help certain types of breast, prostate, and some other cancers to grow. If you have one of them, your doctor may recommend hormone therapy to slow the cancer's growth or stop it from...

Nov 22, 2022 · Hormone therapy for cancer blocks cancerous cells’ access to those hormones. If you have prostate cancer, advanced uterine cancer or a certain type of breast cancer, your healthcare provider may treat your condition with hormone therapy to keep cancer from growing or to slow down how fast it grows.

Jul 12, 2022 · Hormone therapy is available via pills, injection or surgery that removes hormone-producing organs, namely the ovaries in women and the testicles in men. It’s typically recommended along with other cancer treatments.

Jul 12, 2022 · Hormone therapy (also called hormonal therapy, hormone treatment, or endocrine therapy) slows or stops the growth of hormone-sensitive tumors by blocking the body’s ability to produce hormones or by interfering with effects of hormones on breast cancer cells.

Jan 25, 2025 · Hormone therapy for breast cancer is a treatment for breast cancers that are sensitive to hormones. Some forms of hormone therapy for breast cancer work by blocking hormones from attaching to receptors on cancer cells. Other forms work by decreasing the body's production of hormones.

Jun 25, 2024 · Hormone therapy drugs slow or stop the growth of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers in a few ways: Some hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen, attach to the hormone receptor in the cancer cell and block estrogen from attaching to the receptor.

Hormonal therapy is sometimes used to destroy hormone-sensitive cancer cells that have spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body or those that have returned (recurrent cancer). Hormonal therapy can also be used to ease a cancer patient’s symptoms (such as pain from a large tumor).