Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine

H
hormone-driven cancers Types of cancer that
thrive on or require hormones for their survival.
In men, ANDROGENS (notably TESTOSTERONE) sustain
PROSTATE CANCER. In women, ESTROGENS and PROGES-
TERONE feed many types of BREAST CANCER, OVARIAN
CANCER, and ENDOMETRIAL CANCER (cancer of the
UTERUS).
Hormone-driven cancers arise in cells that are
HORMONE dependent. However, researchers do not
know whether hormones cause these cancers to
develop or simply fuel them after they form.
Researchers do know that breast cancer and ovarian
cancer occur more often in women who have
extended exposure to estrogen, such as with early
onset of MENSTRUATION (MENARCHE before age 12) or
late MENOPAUSE (after age 55). The use of oral contraceptives
(birth control pills) or hormone
replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause may
also increase a woman’s risk for these cancers,
though research continues to investigate these
connections.
The correlation between hormones and cancer
becomes even less distinct with prostate cancer.
Researchers know that testosterone fuels the
growth of prostate cancer cells once the cancer
develops. But the role of testosterone in the development
of prostate cancer is unknown. Unlike
estrogen and progesterone levels in women,
testosterone levels in men are fairly constant
though do decline gradually after age 30. Some
researchers believe it is lower testosterone levels
that allow prostate cells to mutate, becoming cancerous.
Other researchers believe the changing
balance between estrogen and testosterone in a
man’s body as he ages plays a contributing role.
Hormone-driven cancers in men and women are
more likely after age 50.
HORMONE THERAPY as adjuvant therapy is the
standard of care for most hormone-driven cancers.
Primary treatment may be surgery to remove the
tumor, RADIATION THERAPY, or CHEMOTHERAPY, or a
mix of any or all of these treatment options.
Oncologists use luteinizing hormone–releasing
hormone (LHRH) agonists, which suppress the
body’s production of androgens and estrogens, to
treat prostate cancer in men and breast, ovarian,
and endometrial cancers in women. Aromatase
inhibitors, which block the body’s ability to convert
androgens to estrogen, and tamoxifen, which
binds with estrogen receptors to block estrogen,
are among the hormone therapies oncologists use
to treat hormone-driven breast cancers in women.
See also CANCER TREATMENT OPTIONS AND DECI-
SIONS; IMMUNOTHERAPY.
hyperplasia Overgrowth of cells. Hyperplasia,
also called hypertrophy, may occur for various
reasons. Though the overgrowth of tissue may
cause symptoms it is not necessarily cancerous.
For example, BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA (BPH) is
common in men over age 65 and commonly
causes symptoms such as difficult URINATION.
Endometrial hyperplasia is similarly common in
women approaching MENOPAUSE, causing symptoms
such as abnormal uterine bleeding. Typically
the structure of cells and tissue in hyperplasia is
normal; there is simply an overgrowth. The risk is
that hyperplasia will progress to abnormal cells
and tissue structure, a precancerous condition
called DYSPLASIA. Unless it causes symptoms,
hyperplasia does not require treatment other than
diligent monitoring.
See also CANCER RISK FACTORS; CELL STRUCTURE AND
FUNCTION.
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