Hormone therapy and prostate cancer life expectancy

Hormone therapy lowers or blocks male hormones that can signal prostate cancer cells to grow. It may be used before, with or after radiotherapy, or when cancer has spread. Some cancers respond for a long period; others become less sensitive and need a different combination of treatments.

Outlook is shaped by the cancer's grade, stage, sites of spread, PSA pattern, response to treatment and your general health. A clinician can interpret these details together; an online estimate based only on the treatment name cannot provide a personal forecast.

Ask your team what the treatment is intended to do: shrink the cancer, delay progression, relieve symptoms or support another treatment. Confirm how PSA, scans, symptoms and side effects will be followed, and what the next option would be if the response changes.

Take medicines as prescribed and tell the team about heart disease, diabetes, bone problems, mood changes and all other medicines. Bone-strengthening therapy, radiotherapy or targeted radioisotope therapy may be considered in particular situations.

Tell your cancer team about rapidly worsening pain, new weakness or numbness, difficulty passing urine, blood in the urine, fever, severe dizziness or marked mood changes. Seek emergency help for sudden leg weakness, loss of bladder or bowel control, severe breathlessness or chest pain.

What is the aim of my hormone therapy? What do my stage and PSA pattern mean? How will we recognise response or resistance? Which side effects should I report quickly? How are my bones and heart health being monitored?