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Breast Cancer Prevention Study

While the number of deaths from breast cancer each year have been declining, they are still staggering: more than 40-thousand women will die this year alone. More than 260,000 women will be told they have the disease.

While the number of deaths from breast cancer each year have been declining, they are still staggering: more than 40-thousand women will die this year alone. More than 260,000 women will be told they have the disease. There is new research involving the drug exemestane which was approved by the FDA back in 1999 for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women who were no longer responding to the traditional treatment tamoxifen.

Now, scientists in the United States and Canada, lead by a team at Massachusetts general hospital in Boston, will soon be focusing their attention on preventing breast cancer by using the drug exemestane--a so-called aromatase inhibitor. Dr. Paul Goss, lead researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, says, "The background rationale behind using aromatase inhibitors for preventing breast cancer stems from a body of data that shows if you have an early ovarectomy you reduce your risk of breast cancer."

The reason: there's less estrogen floating around the body when a woman's ovaries have been removed. Doctors have long known about this link, and often prescribe the anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen after a woman has had the disease and wants to prevent its recurrence. "If you imagine breast cancer cells sitting at a dinner table and estrogen being made in the kitchen, tamoxifen works by coming to the doorway of the dining room and blocking incoming estrogen." Dr. Goss states. But it doesn't stop the body from making estrogen; it's still floating around.

Study chairman, Dr. Paul Goss says cells only react to tamoxifen for about 5-years. Exemestane and other aromatase inhibitors are designed to work differently. "The aromatase inhibitors actually shut down production in the kitchen so there's no estrogen manufacturing." says Dr. Goss. Complete estrogen depletion in patients however is untested water. 45-hundred women will take part in the trial for 5-years. "The jury is out on what the effect will be on organs if you deplete estrogen. One thing we do know however is that the depletion of estrogen does accelerate bone loss." informs Dr. Goss. There's some indication it can also aggravate among other things: hot flashes. Still in previous studies on women and animals, aromatase inhibitors like exemestane have proven to be better at reducing risk than tamoxifen, which cuts risk about 50-percent. "Aromatase inhibitors take that down another 50%." says Dr. Goss. "It's important for your listeners to realize that there isn't such a pill on the horizon for most cancers." Meaning, breast cancer patients present and future, in New York and other cities, find themselves in a unique position…perhaps on the verge of real prevention. Remember this is a 5-year study, so it will be quite some time before we know if real "prevention" is possible in high-risk women. That includes a family history of the disease and increased age.

For more information on Breast cancer, Click here.

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