Hormone therapy is sometimes used in conjunction with surgery or radiotherapy, and can also be used if you are not well enough to have surgery.

Hormone therapy is used as a treatment on its own, or may be given before radiotherapy and sometimes before surgery.  It is given with the aim of reducing the chance of the cancer coming back.

Hormone therapy works by reduces the amount of testosterone in the body, and is given either as an injection or as tablets. 

For some men the hormones may stop working after a number of years, and the cancer starts growing, this is called hormone refractory prostate cancer.