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Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that removes hormones or blocks the hormone action to stop cancer cells from growing. If tests show that the cancer
cells have places where hormones can attach (such as in ER- or PR-positive cancers), then certain drugs, or surgery, may be used to reduce the production of
hormones or block them from working.
- Hormone therapy with an aromatase inhibitor is given to some postmenopausal women who have hormone-dependent breast cancer. Because hormone-dependent breast
cancer needs estrogen to grow, aromatase inhibitors work by decreasing the body's estrogen or by blocking estrogen production. Examples of drugs considered
aromatase inhibitors are letrozole (Femara®), anastrozole (Arimidex®) and exemestane (Aromasin®).
- Hormone therapy using anti-estrogen drugs work by temporarily blocking estrogen receptors on breast cancer cells, preventing estrogen from binding to them.
- Anti-estrogen drugs like Tamoxifen or toremifene (Fareston) are taken daily as a pill and are effective for women with ER- or PR-positive breast cancer.
- Fulvestrant (Faslodex®) is a drug that also acts on the estrogen receptor, but instead of blocking it like Tamoxifen does, it eliminates the estrogen.
It is given as an injection once a month to postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer that are no longer responding to Tamoxifen or toremifene.
- Because the ovaries are the main source of estrogen in pre-menopausal women, surgical removal or halting the ovary estrogen production, may allow some
hormone therapies to work better. This therapy, known as ovarian ablation, can be done through surgery or using certain medications.
- Surgery for permanent ovarian ablation can be done by removing the ovaries. This operation is called an oophorectomy.
- Drugs called luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogs will stop the signal that the body sends to ovaries to make estrogens. The drugs goserelin (Zoladex®)
or leuprolide (Lupron®) are examples of LHRH analogs that may be used alone or with Tamoxifen as a hormone therapy in pre-menopausal women with breast cancer.
