In some good news for breast cancer treatment and research, it appears that a bone density drug called Zometa may help women strengthen their bone density (which is a common problem for us women as we age), but it may also help chemotherapy fight breast cancer.  Why would they  come to that conclusion, with two seemingly unrelated drugs, one for cancer and one for bone density?

Well, apparently women who were recieving both treatments had more tumor shrinkage than the women who were just getting chemotherapy by itself.  The problem with Zometa and other similar bone building drugs is that often one infusion of them costs the patient over one thousand dollars per treatment, minus anything your health insurance pays, of course, but it’s still pretty pricey, and the drug may also have some side effects, although they are supposedly rare.

I think this is another positive movement toward complementary treatments for breast cancer, since it addresses it not just with one drug -the scary one name chemotherapy, but with two drugs that may address the problem more completely.  Hopefully these types of findings will lead to more experimentation with potentially complementing drugs that may help boost the other’s effectiveness, or they may just complement eachother in the body for some reason.

In other news, there are new hormone blockers that block certain types of cancer fueling estrogens on the market that may provide a better treatment option for breast cancer as well, adding more hope that this cancer may soon be a very treatable and preventable cancer in women.

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Posted in Breast Cancer Prevention by Breast News Girl No Comments Yet