Hormone Therapy Vs Hormone Replacement Therapy - Are They Different?

Hormone therapy is a treatment option for women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Like chemotherapy, hormone therapy is a systemic therapy, meaning that is works throughout the entire body. Breast cancer hormone therapy should not be confused with hormone replacement therapy, which is used to replenish hormone levels in post-menopausal women. As the two therapies can easily be confused, let's take a closer look at each.

What are Hormones?
Before hormone therapies can be explained, it's important to understand hormones and they role they play. Hormones are substances produced by glands and are very powerful. Having too much or too little of a hormone can cause problems. They work as messengers and circulate through the blood carrying messages from the glands to the cells. They also control the actions of certain cells and regulate many biological functions such as:

- Growth
- Metabolism
- Sexual function
- Reproduction
- Mood

Breast Cancer Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy is a treatment option for breast cancer when cells of the breast tumor are found to be hormone receptor-positive or sensitive. This simply means that the cancer cells have a place where hormones can attach, known as receptors. A receptor is a protein on the outside of a cell where a specific hormone attaches. When diagnosing breast cancer, tests are performed that measure the amount of hormone receptors in cancer tissue. If hormone receptor levels are high, they are considered "receptor-positive," which means that the cancer cells may use the hormones to grow. Hormone therapy removes the hormones or blocks them from acting to keep cancer cells from growing. Treatment may include drugs, surgery, or radiation. Hormone therapy is most often used to help reduce the risk of the cancer returning after surgery, but is used in cases of advanced breast cancer as well.

Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hormone replacement therapy is used after menopause to replace the hormones that ovaries no longer produce. Whether it begins naturally or follows a hysterectomy, menopause can produce some very unpleasant symptoms - hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal dryness and urinary problems. To help relieve these symptoms, doctors often prescribe hormone replacement drugs.

A number of years ago, it was thought that hormone replacement therapy was the solution to the problems women encounter as they age. In addition to menopause, the medical community believed that increasing estrogen levels could also help prevent heart disease and osteoporosis. This is no longer the case.

Recently, results of a 15-year study that began in 1991 by the National Institutes of Health found a definite link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. The study was initiated to determine what effects, if any, hormone replacement therapy and other factors had on breast cancer, heart disease, bone fractures, and colorectal cancer. Over 16,000 post-menopausal women were to be studied over a 15-year period however the study was stopped more than three years early in 2002, because of the link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. It was found that post-menopausal women taking hormones for more than five years to relieve menopause symptoms like hot flashes have twice the risk of developing breast cancer than women not taking hormones. Fortunately, the risk declines when women stop taking the drugs and returns to normal after two years of being off the drugs.

It's important to know that hormones can have positive effects in some therapies and negative effects in others. If you have questions about a specific type of hormone therapy, talk to your doctor.

I have been interested in cancer since my brother Jerry was diagnosed with colon cancer five years ago. After two surgeries he is doing well and is still cancer free. The first surgery was to remove a large tumor from his colon and the second was to remove his colon. Needless to say he has been through a lot and the road to recovery was a long one. About two years ago my brother Fred was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Man, you talk about devastating! Well after about a month or two the shock started to ware off and treatments started to begin. My brother Fred was in denial for, what seemed to be a long time. I wanted to write about both of my brothers cancers but, decided against it thinking it would hurt them some how so I decided to write about cancers that no one in the family has as of yet. If you'd like to send a massage of support to my brothers Jerry and Fred, leave a comment here and I'll see that they get it. If you'd like more information on breast cancer treatment, please click this link. http://www.understanding-breast-cancer-treatment.com

P.S. My brother Fred is doing well. The chemo the doctors used on him shrunk the tumor until it was off the radar. We're not sure its gone but we know that its not growing, at least for now.

Breast Cancer Information
Breast Cancer Information