Breast Cancer Risks Lowered with New Drug Aromasin

Researchers have reported that there is a new drug now that is used in preventing breast cancer reappearances, which also can reduce the risk of it happening in the first place. It also provides a new alternative for women who are at high risks of having the disease.

The researchers said that exemestane, the new drug does not have the usual side effects that other drugs such as tamoxifen and raloxifene give and this may also be more acceptable. Tamoxifen and raloxifene, the other two drugs have been previously approved in preventing breast cancer. However these drugs are infrequently used for that reason, because these can give serious side effects to patients such as blood clots.

Dr. Paul E. Goss, the lead researcher for the study and a professor of medicine at Massachusetts and Harvard General Hospital stated, “There’s a very safe therapy that looks highly effective in preventing breast cancer.”

The new drug option exemestane is also known by its brand name Aromasin. This is identified as one of the class of compounds referred to as aromatase inhibitors. These kinds of drugs can stop the production of estrogen, which is the main reason for tumor growth. It was proven that tamoxifen is superior in preventing reappearances of cancer after the removal of the tumor.

In fact, the researchers have long thought that aromatase inhibitors may help in reducing risks of early appearance of the disease. But this is the first study to actually present this.

For the study, researchers looked at 4,570 post-menopausal women located in United States, Canada, France and Spain who were believed to be at a high risk of growing a tumor which indicates breast cancer. This is either due to 60 or other factors that causes this disease. The study period was three years, and after that, a follow-up was done. 11 women who had taken the drug had built up invasive breast cancer and 32 of the women had received only a placebo developed the disease. These results only show that there is a 65% reduction rate.

Dr. Eric Winer, a breast cancer specialist said, “People are going to think very, very hard about it before they are going to take an aromatase inhibitor in this setting.” He also added, “On the more positive note, this study is intended to show whether exemestane worked on women with breast cancer and can actually make them live longer than expected.”

Source: http://www.healthtalkandyou.com

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