That Happened!

New York - Research continues to test run the many breakthrough breast cancer drugs after the success experienced with tamoxifen. Tamoxifen was found to reduce the risk of recurrent breast cancer in cases where women had receptor positive tumors.

Several encouraging findings were announced and introduced this Thursday at a San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The most promising of all the drugs was the osteoporosis drug, Zometa. This drug was found to shrink the appearance of tumors in the breast for patients who were also undergoing chemotherapy.

Currently, the drug has been approved and is being used to treat breast cancer after it has spread to the bone and bone marrow. Researchers have also reported that the drug has shown that it can lower the risk of the recurrence of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women.

The research included an analysis of around 200 women. Some of the women received chemotherapy alone and some received Zometa and chemotherapy together. The women who received both Zometa and chemotherapy generally had a quicker recover time and overall, fared better. Tumors were reduced by around 50% in the combination group. What the data suggests is that Zometa not only is protecting the bone, but it has the ability to shrink tumors and reduce the recurrence of other tumors in its place.

This is one of the most promising and noninvasive breast cancer treatments that has been discovered for this type of breast cancer. Indeed, there are still many tests that need to be performed, but overall, this seems like a very positive combination of aggressive treatment.