What is adjuvant hormonal therapy?

This type of therapy is often used in patients who have been treated for breast cancer or prostate cancer. Patients who have breast or prostate cancer often decide to undergo surgery to remove the tumor. This is because alternatives to surgical procedure may be more difficult to treat or have side effects with which it is more difficult to live than recovery from surgery. In the treatment of breast cancer, this surgery may consist in the removal of the tumor itself, which is a procedure called lumpectomy; or removal of the whole breast, procedurecalled mastectomy. In the treatment of prostate cancer, the patient could undergo the removal of the whole prostate, prostatectomy; or removal of the testes or orchiectomy.

It is not always known whether surgery has actually cured cancer. It is possible that there was some cancer that is occult or not visible. Treatment of doctors may also ask the patient to undergo adjuvant hormonal therapy if there is a risk that cancer could return or if there is any occult cancer.

In the treatment of breast cancer, adjuvant hormonal therapy can consist of a five -year course of tamoxifen and copies. These drugs are designed to block the production and effect of hormonal estrogen. It is believed that estrogen plays a role in the onset of breast cancer because it helps to cause breast cell division and cancer by definition involves theabnormal division of cells.

atProstate cancer treatment, adjuvant therapy involves the use of drugs called luteinizing hormonal analogs releasing hormones (LHRH). Examples of this type of drug are goserlin and leuprolide. LHRH analogs block the production and effects of testosterone, which are expected to stimulate prostate cancer cells to constantly divide, causing cancer to continue to spread. Even after prostatectomy or orchiectomy, the adrenal gland continues to produce some testosterone. Therefore, men who seem to be without cancer, especially if there is a risk that cancer has spread to bones, which can be very painful, could also benefit from this form of adjuvant hormonal therapy.