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Does ADT actually kill cancer cells?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 9 8:14am | Replies (46)Comment receiving replies
I think the original question, "Do hormones kill prostate cancer cells" deserves more clinical research. I suspect the difficulty lies in how do you measure the quantity of cancer cells before and after hormone treatment. I have had three urologists treat my prostate cancer. When I asked the question about hormones killing cancer cells, two replied no, they don't, and one confirmed hormones did kill prostate cancer cells. Okay, now what?
I know the book answer is hormones only suspend the growth of cancer cells, keeping them inactive (preferably forever). But I want to share a short statement on the subject that I found on a Mayo Clinic site. It reads: "Most prostate cancer cells rely on testosterone to grow. Hormone therapy causes prostate cancer cells to die or to grow more slowly". Interesting.
If anyone wants to type in all these characters, they can read it themselves. http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hormone-therapy-for-prostate-cancer/about/pac-20384737
That's all there is. I personally hope hormones do whittle down the prostate cancer cells.
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Perhaps it has more to do with terminology than disagreement. Each cubic centimetre of a cancer tumour contains roughly 1 billion cancer cells (that's a conventional working number; some researchers think it should be slightly lower). So if a few million cells die off here or there, it probably doesn't make enough difference for oncologists to say that ADT is "killing" cancer cells.
The real question is whether enough cells survive in hibernation (go dormant) to regrow the tumour later. Radiation, chemo, and similar attempt to target all the cancer cells, including the dormant ones.
(insert standard layperson caveat here)