The purpose of the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) Analogue Injections LCS is to provide a consistent, safe, equitable and cost-effective model for delivering GnRH analogue injections to men with prostate cancer across NCL. 

The aims and outcomes of the LCS are to:

• improve equity of provision and reduce variation in patient care; currently, services are delivered in different ways across NCL, but this new model aims to harmonise delivery by providing equitable access to GnRH analogue injections for men with prostate cancer
• improve patient experience/outcomes by reducing the need for them to travel to secondary care
• ensure correct and safe practice when administering GnRH analogue injections in primary care, underpinned by specialist advice
• improve integration of primary and secondary care services, recognising the increasing contribution that primary care can make in medical management and treatment of cancer as a long term condition
• improve awareness, education and training for local GPs/practice staff about delivery of these injections, effects of cancer treatment, and supporting patients’ post-acute phase of their cancer pathway.

Visit the Prostate cancer hormone (GnRH) injections resource pages for more information.

Background information

The treatment of prostate cancer frequently necessitates patients who are receiving radical radiotherapy, or those with metastases, being given regular GnRH analogue injections.

With the need to provide care closer to home and, where possible, avoid bringing patients into a secondary care setting, lead clinicians in both primary and secondary care have agreed in principle that these drugs should be initiated in secondary care with subsequent injections being given in primary care.  

The new model of care, to implement a simple model where patients’ care is shared, was launched in January 2022.  This means that the first injection is administered at the acute trust and then GPs administer subsequent injections in primary care, with acute care continuing to take overall clinical responsibility until such point that the patient is discharged back to primary care. This pathway is expected to be a precursor to enable fully embedded stratified follow up pathways across NCL.