Bone Drug Lowers Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence

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"The overall outcome of patients in this trial was excellent," Gnant said. "This is reassuring that patients with endocrine [hormone]-response disease, even in premenopause, can be safely treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. The benefit was seen in and outside the bone."

Although about 5 percent of participants had had chemotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumor, none received later chemo. In Europe, breast cancer patients are commonly treated with endocrine therapy alone," said Dr. Joanne Mortimer, vice chairwoman of medical oncology at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. In the United States, some, but not all, women in this group are treated without chemotherapy.

"This is not a trial about hormones instead of chemo. It's about Zometa," Mortimer said. "We know that this drug improves bone health, but there is also some evidence that it may actually have an effect on cancer cells, and the fact that this was seen in this population is very exciting."

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"This is going to open up a new opportunity for patients, and also for further research," said Dr. Edith Perez, chairwoman of the breast cancer clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. "It has some limitations in that it was done only in premenopausal women, but it is consistent with other studies that have been reported with other drugs in that same class."

A national study is now looking at both pre- and postmenopausal women and Zometa, Perez added.

More information

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has more information on breast cancer.

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