Hormone therapy in the management of prostate cancer: treating the cancer without hurting the patient

Czech version

Authors: B. Tombal; A. Stainier
Authors‘ workplace: Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Published in: Urol List 2011; 9(1): 55-59

Overview

Hormone therapy (HT) is the mainstay systemic treatment of prostate cancer (PCa). Hormone therapy can be delivered by androgen deprivation therapies (surgical castration or LHRH agonists) or by antiandrogens. Conventionally, hormone therapy is considered as a palliative treatment since it rapidly alleviates cancer related symptoms such as pain or urinary obstruction but modestly improves survival. However, recent publications demonstrate that HT improves survival when it is used in adjuvant to externalbeam radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy in young patients with aggressive disease. However, treating asymptomatic men for long periods of time also raises new concerns on sideeffects. Recent data indicate an increased risk of developing severe complications such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular events. This implies that physicians have to adapt to these new indication

Key words:
prostate cancer, hormone therapy, LHRH agonists, antiandrogens, side-effects

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Article was published in

Urological Journal

2011 Issue 1