Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer
Hormones are naturally produced compounds in the body that affect the functions of various organs of tissues. Although hormones in general do not affect cancer cells, with breast cancer the situation is different. Oestrogen and progesterone are female hormones that can affect or stimulate the growth of some breast cancer cells.
Not all cases of breast cancer can be effectively treated with hormone therapy. The cancer cells in the breast will be tested to check if they have oestrogen receptors which allow the oestrogen to lock onto the cell. If the cancer cells do not have oestrogen receptors then hormone therapy would not be suitable and chemotherapy may be suggested.
As with chemotherapy, hormone therapy may be used prior to surgery to reduce the size of the cancer. This could mean that just the tumour is removed in surgery and not the whole breast. There is also research to prove that hormone therapy may reduce the risk of reoccurrence of breast cancer after initial treatment.
After menopause women do not produce oestrogen from their ovaries, yet a small amount of the hormone is produced by the adrenal gland above the kidneys. Aromatase inhibitors, a drug, can be used to block the production of this oestrogen in post menopausal women.
As with biological therapy, hormone therapy was initially used to treat breast cancer that had spread, but some aromatase inhinibtors have now been licensed to treat women with early breast cancer.
Biological therapy is a treatment for breast cancer using laboratory made anitbodies that target cancer cells