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Hormone-sensitive prostate cancer

If your prostate cancer is hormone-sensitive, treatment that lowers testosterone usually works well, often for years, so you can keep up work, activity and time with family.

ℹ️ General information to help you and your loved ones talk with your care team, not medical advice. Read our disclaimer.

The quick guide

What it means: The cancer still needs testosterone to grow, so lowering it (androgen deprivation therapy, ADT) slows or shrinks it.

How it's found: Shown by a falling PSA and controlled disease on ADT. PSMA PET or other scans show where cancer is.

How common it is: Most men with advanced prostate cancer start here.

How treatment works

🌱 Early-stage

  • Localized cancer: active surveillance, surgery or radiation, sometimes with months to years of ADT for higher-risk cancer.
  • Rising PSA after surgery or radiation: more radiation, ADT, or Xtandi for some high-risk recurrences.

🔁 Advanced or metastatic

  • ADT plus an AR pathway drug such as Xtandi, apalutamide, darolutamide or abiraterone. Some men also get docetaxel chemo.
  • Radiation to the prostate may help men with low-volume spread.

Approvals depend on stage and prior treatment. Your care team will decide what fits you.

Drug guides

Biomarker tests that matter

Side effects you may notice

❓ Questions you and your loved ones can ask

Back to Prostate cancer overview. Other types: Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), Early-stage prostate cancer by risk group.

Written by the Cancer Side Effects Guide team from FDA labels and leading cancer centers. Not medical advice. · Last updated: October 15, 2026 · How we write

Not medical advice. This page is general information to help you talk with your care team. It can't replace advice from your doctor or nurse. If you have a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during treatment, or any symptom that worries you, call your care team now. In an emergency, call 911.

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