Jun 08
11
Bone Loss Prevention Drug May Prevent Breast Cancer Spread
A drug commonly administered to breast cancer patients called Zometa may actually help breast cancer patients in more way than one. There are suggestive studies that the women who take this drug may benefit from it inhibiting the spreading of the cancer to other parts and areas of the body.Â
The study that shows Zometa’s cancer inhibiting properties in breast cancer patients involved almost 2,000 patients who were in early stages of breast cancer and on hormone therapy. The reason women on hormone therapy often experience bone loss is because the loss of estrogen and other vital hormones often leaves the bones in a weakened state, and the Zometa helped to keep the bones strong during hormone and other body weakening treatments. The women who were on the bone loss prevention drug saw about a one third less chance that the cancer would spread or return.Â
The good news goes further though, because the bone loss drug which helps to make the bones stronger for women undergoing chemotherapy, since it tends to sap the body of vital minerals and can hence make the bones brittle and create bone loss, is that the drug not only prevents the spread of cancer in and to the bones, but also it works elsewhere in the body as a preventive measure against spread and recurrence, making it a very promising future inclusion in breast cancer treatment, and not, of course, for the sole purpose of preventing bone loss this time.
Oncologists say this finding may definitely alter the way breast cancer patients are treated. Now, more good news. Since Zometa has shown such great promise in preventing breast cancer spread to the bones and elsewhere, it is also currently being tested as a possible addition to other cancers which commonly migrate to the bones, prostate cancer (the male equivalent to female breast cancer, some might say, since it’s a “male cancer”), and kidney cancer.Â
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