14 DAY TRIAL // A study published in the journal The Lancer, and presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (December 10-14) suggests that the antihormone therapy drug anastrozole is very efficient in reducing breast cancer rates in menopausal women who are at high risk of developing the condition.
These are the preliminary conclusions of a new double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which was led by the chairman of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study II (IBIS-II) Steering Committee Jack Cuzick, PhD. He is also the head of the Center for Cancer Prevention at Cancer Research UK, the AACR says in a statement.
Anastrozole is effective against many types of breast cancer because it attacks estrogen, a hormone that can be found in high concentrations in these tumors. Already in use unofficially for about 10 years, this drug reduced the incidence of cancer in a study of 3,864 women by 55 percent.
“We want to determine if anastrozole has a continued impact on cancer incidence even after stopping treatment, if it reduces deaths from breast cancer, and to ensure that there are no long-term adverse side effects.” said Cuzick, adding that his team will continue to track all test participants over the next decade.