Hormone therapy is a method of treating various pathologies, since it is hormones that are protein compounds that can act on various pathogenetic mechanisms that develop in the human body.
Hormone therapy is often used to treat hormone-positive
breast tumors. Such therapy is also called anti-estrogenic, as it is aimed at preventing the negative effects of estrogen on the cells of tumor formations.
Of the drugs that are most often prescribed for breast cancer, the drug Tamoxifen, as well as aromatase inhibitors , should be called .
It is worth noting that hormone therapy is characterized by a systemic effect on the body, therefore, it can be used to destroy cancer cells after radiation therapy or surgery, as well as after taking chemotherapy drugs to reduce the risk of relapse of the disease.
Indications for hormone treatment are:
- high risk of developing breast cancer;
- relapses in non-invasive breast cancer;
- invasive cancer, when you need to reduce the size of the tumor for other treatment methods;
- metastatic tumor.
Hormone therapy for these pathologies is aimed at blocking or destroying receptors that are sensitive to estrogen, as well as at reducing the concentration of this hormone in the blood.
Hormone replacement therapy for women, which is carried out to eliminate menopausal disorders, is also quite common. This therapy is fundamentally different from standard hormone treatment, since it is aimed at replenishing their deficiency in the body, and not at inhibiting them.
Substitution therapy is based on the use of various analogues of sex hormones, which effectively eliminate manifestations of ovarian failure, such as heat attacks and excessive sweating, headaches, irritability, and memory impairment due to insufficient concentration of estrogen.
What to drink with menopause should be determined by the doctor. In most cases, low doses of estrogen are prescribed in combination with progestogens, which prevents the development of a hyperplastic process in the endometrium. Moreover, such hormonal therapy should be carried out for at least 5-7 years, which helps 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 have prostate cancer. In this case, antiandrogen therapy is performed, which helps to block the growth, proliferation, and also the development of cancer cells.
In treatment, androgen blockades are used, which are carried out by medical castration or by the appointment of antiandrogens. Often used estrogens that inhibit the secretion of LHRH, inhibit the functioning of Leydig cells, and also act cytotoxically on prostate adenocarcinoma cells.