Medications

Hormones are drugs that can affect the growth of prostate cancer cells. Hormone therapy is sometimes used with radiation treatment or surgery to help make sure that all cancer cells are destroyed.

Chemotherapy is the use of powerful drugs—either injected or taken as pills—to destroy cancer cells. Many men decide to have chemotherapy for treatment of late-stage prostate cancer, but researchers are studying whether chemotherapy should be used before or after surgery to treat early-stage, high-risk prostate cancer.¹¹