Hormonal Therapy
The majority of prostate cancers are small and grow slowly. Because many men with a slow-growing tumor have the same life expectancy as men who don't have prostate cancer, it may not be necessary to treat very small, very slow-growing prostate tumors. Additionally, some men feel that the side effects of treatment outweigh the benefits.
It can be hard to tell if a small tumor is going to grow slowly or quickly. Your doctor will get clues about the way your tumor will grow by checking your prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, examining the biopsy tissue and giving you a rectal exam. The choice of watchful waiting is up to you.
When a patient and his doctor employ watchful waiting as a treatment modality, hormonal therapy is the first line of defense, should cancer start to grow. Hormone therapys are most often used in patients with cancer that has already spread beyond the prostate gland.
The purpose of hormonal therapy is to lower the level of the male hormones, called androgens, which are produced mostly in the testicles. This is effective in reducing tumor growth because androgens, such as testosterone, help the prostate tumor to grow. Monthly hormone shots can be administered, or the testicles can be surgically removed. Once the testosterone is out of a patient’s body, the prostate cancer usually shrinks.
My Take
While prostate cancer usually responds to 1 or 2 years of hormone therapy. After some time, most tumors start to grow again. No treatment can cure prostate cancer after hormone therapy stops helping. At this point, the treatment goal is to control symptoms.