Hormones and cancer.

Hormonal therapy is the first systemic therapy to have been used successfully in the treatment of cancer. Developments in steroid hormone receptor assays in the last decade have resulted in the first predictable assays for cancer therapy. The role of hormones, in both the development and treatment of breast, prostate and uterine cancer, is reviewed. Because hormonal therapy is generally a less toxic palliative treatment than other treatments (e.g., chemotherapy and radiation), it has been used for malignancies such as malignant melanoma, hypernephroma, and carcinoid.