Feb 18, 2009 10:40 am US/Central
Bone Loss Drug May Lessen Breast Cancer Recurrence
A Study Published In The New England Journal Of Medicine Found That Zometa Could Decrease Chance Of Breast Cancer Recurrence
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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A drug, which is only being used in clinical trials right now, could bring hope to patients with breast cancer.
CBS
A drug, which is only being used in clinical trials right now, could bring hope to patients with breast cancer. Doctors themselves aren't using the drug, but the find is very exciting.
After breast cancer is treated in many cases, doctors say there is a 15% to 40% chance it will come back within the first 5 years.
Brenda Kelly Grant can't believe at her age she's a breast cancer survivor. Still, she knows that it can come back, CBS station KCBS reports.
"It's sort of a waiting game, that you hope that in two years there's nothing… that in five years, there's nothing," Grant said.
Tiffany Jones understands. She's also cancer-free, beating it twice.
"Four years ago, I was diagnosed, and a year to the date, I had a recurrence," Jones said.
Surgical Breast Specialist Dr. Kristi Funk, founder of Pink Lotus Breast Center is talking about a promising study that says that a drug used to treat bone loss may stop breast cancer from spreading and even from coming back.
Over 1800 premenopausal women with breast cancer that are fueled by estrogen have their cancers removed. Then, they took drugs to stop all estrogen production in their bodies. And the study began.
"And then half the women got this bone-protecting drug called Zometa and the other half didn't – they got a placebo. They received the drug twice a year for three years, another year went by and then they looked at the two groups. So there was a 36% reduction in breast cancer recurrence in the group that got Zometa. It is astounding" Dr. Funk said.
Brenda and Tiffany weren't part of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine but fit the cancer profile being looked at. Still, Dr. Funk warns with this drug, there can be rare side effects, although no one in the study suffered with them.
"One is called osteonecrosis of the jaw. Your jaw bone basically turns to mush. The other one is kidney damage" Dr. Funk said.
Now as for changing her methods of treatment, Dr. Funk says not yet but possibly in the future.
"There are two other studies that have pretty much done the exact same thing as this one. They will be published in the next year and they will have the same, exciting results," Dr. Funk said.
"Listening to this… amazing, it's a breakthrough," Grant said.
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