A bone building drug that was thought to perhaps prevent breast cancer recurrence in breast cancer patients, and to potentially even help those that never had breast cancer to not get it, has recently been tested clinically in trials to see if it really offers benefit.
The benefits tested were for two groups apparently, for women who already had breast cancer, to see if it helped prevent a recurrence of the breast cancer, and in women who were on the drug for bone building drug Zometa already for strictly bone loss prevention purposes, to see if they experienced less breast cancer rates.
The results were disappointing, as it did not seem to help the group with breast cancer prevent recurrence of the disease, as it had hinted at in previous studies. Also, the side effects can be relatively serious, with one of them being jaw bone decay (I know, it doesn’t make sense, it’ s bone building drug after all).
These types of studies are usually meant to identify any statistically significant benefits, and also to determine whether any potentially serious side effects outweigh any of the benefits. In this case, they did not, so it’s looking like unless further studies indicate more promising data, this may not be a route that breast cancer patients are taken on to prevent recurrence of their cancer.
Boniva and Fosamax are two bone building drugs that have gotten a lot of attention. There are bone building drugs that women take in their post menopause years to prevent osteoporosis which are either daily tablets that are taken or they are shots that are only give once a year or so to prevent bone loss.
Osteoporosis is a serious threat to women’s bone density and health when they get into their menopausal years. It is linked to a decline in estrogen levels, but women also are just more prone to calcium deficiencies to begin with. It’s important that women who are taking calcium supplements are also getting enough vitamin D in their diet.
Vitamin D is essential not only for calcium absorption by the body, but it also has been increasingly identified as an anti cancer nutrient which helps prevent the cells of the body from turning cancerous and mutating.
It also can help prevent depression and elevate mood, and there have been studies linking it to breast cancer prevention. I’d say if you don’t think you have enough vitamin D in your diet, go get tested and see where you’re at, then determine a safe dosage to put yourself on and get your blood levels up of this important vitamin.
