Bone Drug Offers Hope on Breast Cancer

Study: Zometa might be alternative to chemo for early-stage breast cancer.

ByABC News
February 18, 2009, 5:46 PM

May 31, 2008 — -- Some early-stage breast cancer patients may soon have a promising new approach to treatment. A major study, released today, found that a drug commonly known to treat brittle bones also showed promise in dealing with early-stage breast cancer and could change the way many breast cancer patients are treated.

Zometa, a drug originally approved by the FDA to treat bone loss in patients undergoing chemotherapy and to reduce bone fractures in osteoporosis patients, might also reduce the risk of disease recurrence in premenopausal breast cancer patients, an Austrian study suggests.

The study, released today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, looked at 1,803 patients with early-stage breast cancer who were undergoing ovarian suppression, a treatment used to prematurely stop menstruation in order to induce menopause in women with hormone-sensitive tumors. By inducing menopause to lower estrogen levels, these hormone-sensitive tumors usually stop growing.

After five years, researchers found that the hormone therapy, when used with Zometa, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 35 percent compared to patients who received hormone therapy alone.

Moreover, the drug is easily administered and carries little risk of serious side effects, as it requires only one injection every six months.

Michael Gnant, the lead study investigator and professor of surgical oncology at the Medical University of Vienna, said that not only is the study likely to change practice in Europe and the United States, but also might add momentum to the growing demand of many breast cancer patients to avoid chemotherapy.

"To put it into perspective, the number of patients needed to be treated to have one patient who responds very successfully to the drug is quite similar to chemotherapy, but without all the negative and toxic side effects of chemotherapy," Gnant said.

Julie Gralow, associate professor of medical oncology at the University of Washington and director of Breast Medical Oncology at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, said that this study is likely to change the way many early-stage breast cancer patients are treated.