As a result of months or years of endocrine drug therapy, prostate cancer patients can develop androgen resistance. Doctors will use discontinuation when prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels fall to low levels and are maintained. Such a treatment interval allows androgens to return to normal levels; when PSA levels begin to rise again after a period of discontinuation, treatment with endocrine drugs is restarted.
This start-stop-start approach to therapy is called intermittent endocrine therapy.
This treatment not only reduces the complications of androgen reduction such as erectile dysfunction, flushing, and loss of libido during discontinuation, but may also provide the benefit of extending the duration of treatment for patients with prostate cancer who require long-term treatment.
In addition, some prostate cancer patients with persistently elevated PSA and androgen non-dependence during endocrine therapy can also be treated with this intermittent endocrine therapy, stopping the drug for 3 months and then treating again with endocrine drugs when the body’s androgen levels are elevated, which can also lead to better results again.