Other than cytotoxic chemotherapy and targeted therapy, Hormonal therapy today is one of the most looked up treatments of cancer. This treatment works by changing the endocrine system by injecting specific hormones in it. These include specifically steroid hormones which hinder the productivity of cancer hormones. The reason for this is that the steroid hormones are strong drivers of gene expression in some cancer cells, thereby changing the specific genes using specific hormones could stop the growth of cancers.

Basically using this cancer treatment the growth of the cancer aimed to be blocked by inducing some hormones. Prostate cancer and breast cancer are examples of hormone sensitive tumors. Therefore estrogen or testosterone either blocked or removed could be an additional treatment to breast and prostate cancers. Cancers that arise from hormone responsive tissue e.g. breast or prostate could be easily treated using hormonal therapy.

Hormonal therapy is also used in certain types of chemotherapy. Oncology is another example where hormonal therapy is used. Here tamoxifen, an estrogen-responsive modulator is used for treating breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors, a completely another class of hormonal agents are now being used extensively for the treatment of the disease.