Hormonal therapy keeps cancer cells from getting the male hormones they need to grow. It is called systemic therapy because it enters the bloodstream and can affect cancer cells throughout the body. Systemic therapy is used mainly to treat cancer that has spread. Sometimes this type of therapy is used to try to prevent cancer from coming back after surgery or radiation treatment.
There are several forms of hormonal therapy:
Prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body usually can be controlled with hormonal therapy for a period of time, often several years. Eventually, however, most prostate cancers are able to grow with very little or no male hormones. When this happens, hormonal therapy is no longer effective, and the doctor may suggest other forms of treatment that are under study.
