Hormone therapy

Hormonotherapy in oncology is a method of pharmacological treatment of hormone-dependent tumors which aims at inhibiting the tumor process. It is, however, much less toxic and has fewer side effects most of which disappear after treatment. It is currently used as either palliative or supportive but also as an anti-cancer therapy in the early stages of the disease. Hormonal dependence is a concept that concerns the tumors in which hormones play a key role, these tumors are derived from tissues whose growth and function are controlled by one or more hormones. Among the hormone-dependent malignant neoplasms are: thyroid, breast, ovarian, endometrial, or prostate cancer.

Hormonal cancer therapy uses one of the following mechanisms: ablative - to eliminate (surgically remove) or to limit the action of the hormon that promotes cancer; additive - consisting in the administration of specific hormones that give rise to an inhibitory effect on the development of cancer; antagonistic or competitive.

The cost of hormonal therapy is much lower than that of cytostatic drugs, and most importantly the patients treated with this therapy who have responded positively to treatment in the first place have the chance of succeeding in the next stage of hormonal therapy in the event of further progression of the disease.