Intermittent hormone therapy in patients with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PC) is a topical problem of oncourology because of the steady rise in morbidity worldwide. Despite the introduction of a diagnostic technique using prostate-specific antigen, the detection rate of the disease in its late stages remains high. Hormone therapy (HT) is considered to be a basic treatment in patients with metastatic PC. At the same time continuous HT is associated with the risk of developing side effects and can lower quality of life in the patients. Intermittent HT makes it possible to substantially reduce the cost of the performed therapy and to improve quality of life, without decreasing the efficiency of HT. The paper presents a review of clinical trials demonstrating the efficiency of intermittent HT, including the use of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogues, in patients with PC.