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If your cancer extends outside the prostate gland but has not spread to other parts of the body, you may be offered hormone therapy or a combination of radiotherapy and hormone therapy.
Hormone therapy
This treatment may shrink and control prostate for months or years. You can have hormone therapy for as long as it continues to control your cancer.
Prostate cancer needs the male hormone testosterone to grow. Hormone therapy stops the body from producing testosterone, and this slows down the growth of the cancer cells.
Hormone therapy can be given in an injection every three months by your GP/nurse, or in a tablet taken daily, or a combination of the injection and the tablets.
Some patients have hormone therapy for three months before radiotherapy. The aim is to shrink the cancer and make the radiotherapy more likely to be effective.
You will continue with the hormone therapy during your radiotherapy and for at least two months afterwards.
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy uses radiation to kill cancer cells. It is usually given from outside the body – this treatment is called external beam radiotherapy.
For prostate cancer, radiotherapy is usually divided into treatments given every day, Monday-Friday, over 7-8 weeks.
Sometimes, hormone therapy without radiotherapy is offered.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses special drugs to kill cancer cells. For prostate cancer, this treatment is only used when hormone therapy or radiotherapy has not controlled the cancer. This treatment is not suitable for all patients and often has side effects.
