Hormone-Blocker Tests Well Against Tumors

New research indicates a hormone-blocking drug works better than the standard medicine in preventing women who have early-stage cancer in one breast from developing tumors in the other breast.

In the largest breast cancer treatment study to date, women taking Arimidex were less than half as likely to develop a new cancer in the other breast as those taking tamoxifen, researchers reported Thursday at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

International experts were enthusiastic about the findings, and some said it provided a clue that Arimidex, a new drug, could be a better option than tamoxifen for preventing breast cancer in healthy women. However, others expressed concern that the women taking Arimidex had more bone fractures than those taking tamoxifen, an indication that the new drug accelerates bone loss.