Resistance to hormone therapy

Hormone therapy is very often used to treat men with prostate cancer. Doctors decide who it will suit, depending on the stage and grade of the prostate cancer and also the age and general health of each patient. Not all men react in the same way to hormone therapy. Men with the same grade of prostate cancer can respond differently to hormone therapy. It may work longer for one man than for another.

Of all men with advanced stage prostate cancer, hormone therapy will work for between 8 and 9 out of every 10 (85%). But many men will become resistant to the treatment at some stage. This does not appear to be related to how long you take the drugs. Some men become hormone resistant (also called hormone refractory) after months and some after years. This means that the same treatment no longer works to control the cancer. But stopping the hormone treatment can shrink the cancer in up 1 in 3 men. This is called an anti androgen withdrawal response. If the cancer is continuing to grow, there are usually other treatments for you to try, such as chemotherapy. There have been some promising results from clinical trials using two chemotherapy drugs called docetaxel and mitoxantrone.

Some clinical trials are looking into the timing of hormone therapy. Some doctors believe that hormone therapy is better at controlling prostate cancer if you take it for 6 months, then have a break for a while and then take it for another 6 months, instead of taking it all the time. This is called intermittent hormone therapy.