hormone therapy
hormone therapy
Overview
Hormone therapy is a broad class of medical treatment that alters endocrine signaling to slow, suppress, or modulate disease processes. In oncology, it is most commonly used to treat hormone-sensitive cancers by reducing the activity of endogenous hormones or by blocking their receptors. This includes endocrine therapy for breast cancer, such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors like letrozole, anastrozole, and exemestane, as well as androgen deprivation approaches used in prostate cancer. Because many tumors depend on hormonal signaling for growth and survival, hormone therapy can be an important component of adjuvant, neoadjuvant, or metastatic treatment strategies.
Its biological significance lies in the fact that hormone-driven pathways can influence tumor proliferation, recurrence risk, metastatic escape, and treatment response heterogeneity. Recent research contexts also show that hormone therapy is often studied in combination with other modalities, including Cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy-related approaches, reflecting its central role in multimodal cancer care.
Focus of Latest Publications
Recent publications have continued to examine hormone therapy as a foundational treatment in breast cancer and prostate cancer, while also highlighting resistance, treatment uptake, and biomarker development.
Several breast cancer studies focused on endocrine therapy, a major form of hormone therapy. One rapid communication examined patient perceptions and early experiences with abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy as adjuvant targeted therapy for early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence. Another real-world study in older patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer noted that endocrine therapy plus Cdk4/6 inhibitors is the standard first-line treatment regardless of age, and evaluated effectiveness in older populations. A separate study on practice patterns in women aged 65 and older assessed changes over time in endocrine therapy and radiation therapy use, reflecting ongoing uncertainty about optimal treatment delivery in this age group.
Other breast cancer research addressed uptake and duration of hormone therapy. A surgeon-led ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) program evaluated endocrine therapy uptake after surgery, with lumpectomy being part of the clinical context; despite known benefit after surgery for DCIS, uptake remained low. Another study described that patients are commonly prescribed hormone therapy drugs such as tamoxifen, letrozole, anastrozole, and exemestane for 5–10 years, underscoring the long duration of treatment and the importance of adherence and symptom management. A study of endocrine therapy and COVID-19 outcomes in women with breast cancer used population-based data to examine whether endocrine therapy was associated with COVID-19 outcomes, indicating interest in treatment safety and broader health effects during the pandemic.
Mechanistic and resistance-focused studies also featured prominently. One report stated that endocrine therapy reduces recurrence, but around 30% of cancers relapse, and investigated metastatic escape through upregulation of P-Rex1/Rac1 signaling. Another study found that targeting FOSL2 enhanced the antitumor effect when combined with hormone therapy and anti-PD-L1 treatment, suggesting a possible route to overcome heterogeneous response and improve combination strategies. A separate publication on selective translation in cancer described renewed sensitivity to hormone therapy, indicating that translational control may influence treatment response. In addition, a study using selective estrogenic activity in breast cancer cell models noted that estrogens used in hormone therapy could contribute to cancers of the uterus and mammary gland, reflecting the known tissue-specific risks associated with estrogenic exposure.
In prostate cancer, hormone therapy was examined in relation to treatment sequencing and prognosis. A post-hoc analysis from the STAMPEDE platform protocol reported that serum prostate-specific antigen decreases after hormone therapy for prostate cancer, and that the PSA nadir may serve as a potentially useful prognostic biomarker. Another individual patient data meta-analysis evaluated hormone therapy use and duration with postoperative radiotherapy for recurrent prostate cancer, addressing whether adding hormone therapy to postoperative radiotherapy improves overall survival in the same way it does with definitive radiotherapy for localized disease. These studies reinforce hormone therapy’s central role in prostate cancer management while also emphasizing the need to define optimal timing, duration, and prognostic markers.