Endocrine Surgery
Endocrine surgery is a surgical procedure that is performed
to achieve a hormonal or anti-hormonal effect in the body.
Surgical procedures to remove hormone-producing tissues are
among the first attempts at endocrine therapy of cancer (e.g.,
oopherectomy or adrenalectomy for breast cancer, orchiectomy
for prostate cancer). Radiotherapy aimed at hormone-producing
organs (e.g., ovaries) has been used to suppress hormone production
in patients who were not considered to be surgical candidates.
The use of drugs to suppress hormone production has replaced
surgical approaches to endocrine therapy of breast cancer.
However, orchiectomy remains a common approach for the hormonal
management of prostate cancer because of the simplicity of
the procedure, its immediate effect, and the lack of side
effects associated with the drugs used to achieve the same
hormonal suppression.
|
