This is a distressing article for me – it’s right HERE – my father had prostate cancer and had hormonal therapy. He died of hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare cancer in the United States.

Here are some paragraphs from the article:

As a prostate cancer hormone therapy, estrogen is no longer used as much because of the risk of cardiovascular side effects. Many researchers believe that medical and surgical castration is safer and more effective than use of estrogen.

Estrogen causes increased blood clotting. Patients who opt for estrogen as their prostate cancer hormone therapy run the risk of blood clots in the legs, heart attacks, strokes, and other vascular accidents. Estrogen, however, is sometimes used to augment prostate cancer hormone therapy. The side effects of hormone therapy include cognitive disturbances which can result in poor memory, slower memory, depression, or confusion.

Patients who want to consider hormone therapy as their prostate cancer treatment should alert their doctor about other medical problems, such as: blood vessel disease, blood clotting disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, high levels of calcium in the blood, and liver disease. Before starting hormone therapy, patients should always alert their doctors to whether or not they are taking any other type of medication that may interact with the prostate cancer treatment.

OH, AND THEN THERE IS THIS:

An article linking hormone therapy for prostate cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma is HERE. It is interesting and leads to a few “what ifs”.