Hormonal therapy for cancer

Hormone therapy is an effective and non-toxic therapy for oestrogen and progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer and for prostate cancer. Serum concentrations of oestradiol and testosterone are controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal pathway. Oestradiol is produced in premenopausal women from the ovaries, and in postmenopausal women by peripheral conversion of adrenal androgens by aromatase. In premenopausal women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer, treatment is primarily achieved by castration.