Hormonal therapy: its principles and scope

Hormonal therapy is a technique for treating various pathologies, since hormones are protein compounds that are capable of affecting various pathogenetic mechanisms that develop in the human body.

Hormone therapy is often used in the treatment of hormone-positive breast tumors. This therapy is also called anti-estrogenic, because it is directed to prevent the negative effect of estrogen on the cells of tumor formations.

Of the drugs that are most often prescribed for breast cancer, we should mention the drug "Tamoxifen", as well as aromatase inhibitors.

It should be noted that hormone therapy is characterized by systemic effects on the body, so it can be used to kill cancer cells after radiation therapy or surgery, and after taking chemotherapy to reduce the risk of recurrence of the disease.

Indication for treatment with hormones is:

• High risk of developing breast cancer;
• Relapses with non-invasive breast cancer;
• Invasive cancer, when it is necessary to reduce the size of the tumor for other methods of treatment;
• Metastatic tumor.

Hormone therapy for these pathologies is aimed at blocking or destroying receptors that are sensitive to estrogen, as well as reducing the concentration of this hormone in the blood.

It is also quite common to use hormone replacement therapy for women, which is performed to eliminate menopausal disorders. This therapy is fundamentally different from the standard treatment with hormones, because it is directed to replenish their deficiency in the body, and not to inhibit them.

The basis of substitution therapy is the reception of various analogues of sex hormones, which effectively eliminate such manifestations of insufficiency of ovarian function as attacks of fever and excessive sweating, headaches, irritability and memory impairment due to insufficient concentration of estrogens.

What to drink with menopause, should determine the doctor. In most cases, appoint low doses of estrogens in combination with progestogens, which prevents the development of the hyperplastic process in the endometrium. At the same time, such hormone therapy should be performed for at least 5-7 years, which allows to prevent the development of osteoporosis and myocardial infarction among postmenopausal women.

I must say that hormone treatment is carried out not only among women, but also among men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer. In this case, antiandrogen therapy is carried out, which helps to block the growth, proliferation, as well as the development of cancer cells.

In the treatment, androgen blockades are used, which are carried out by medication castration or by the administration of antiandrogens. Often used are estrogens that inhibit LHRH secretion, suppress the functioning of Leydig cells, and also act cytotoxically on cells with adenocarcinoma of the prostate.