[Hormonal therapy for prostatic cancer--state of the art]

Abstract

Following the studies of Huggins and colleagues in 1941, the hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer has been aimed at neutralizing the influence of testicular androgens through surgical castration or the administration of high dose estrogen. Labrie et al introduced combined use of a LHRH agonist and an androgen antagonist for prostatic cancer. Various reports demonstrated a beneficial effect for combined androgen blockade using nonsteroidal antiandrogens for advanced prostatic cancer through meta-analysis of published randomized control trials. In Japanese status, a combined androgen blockade is popular for advanced prostatic cancer as well as local cancer by J-Cap survey. There is a lot of controversy about adjuvant hormonal therapy for prostatic cancer including intermittent hormonal therapy, but the results are not gotten yet.