Hormone Therapy for Cancer: Treating Hormone-Sensitive Tumors

Abstract

Hormone therapy is a type of cancer treatment that is used to slow or stop the growth ofhormone-sensitive tumors. This therapy is based on the fact that some types of cancer cellsrequire hormones, such as estrogen or testosterone, to grow and divide. Hormone therapy worksby either blocking the production of these hormones or blocking the receptors on cancer cellsthat allow the hormones to stimulate their growth. Hormone therapy is commonly used to treatbreast and prostate cancers, which are both hormone-sensitive tumors. In breast cancer, themajority of cases are hormone receptor-positive, meaning that the cancer cells have receptorsthat can bind to estrogen or progesterone. In prostate cancer, the majority of cases are fueled bytestosterone, which is produced by the testes.