Androgen Deprivation Therapy

Androgen deprivation therapy, also called androgen ablation therapy or androgen suppression therapy, is an antihormone therapy used mainly to treat prostate cancer, whose cells typically require androgen hormones such as testosterone to grow. The therapy reduces androgen levels through drugs or surgery to prevent prostate cancer cells from growing, using pharmaceutical approaches including antiandrogens and chemical castration, and can also eliminate cancer cells by inducing androgen deprivation-induced senescence. Studies have found clear benefit in patients with metastatic disease and as an adjunct to radiation therapy in locally advanced or high-risk localized disease, but no survival advantage and significant harm, including impotence, diabetes and bone loss, in patients with low-risk prostate cancer; because androgen deprivation alone does not eradicate the cancer, only slow or shrink it, the therapy is typically combined with radiation therapy.