Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Zometa: Not Proven for Hormone-Negative

Zometa (zoledronic acid) has been touted as a life-saving drug, based on research in the February New England Journal of Medicine.    And it looks like the drug has serious potential—for women with hormone-positive disease.  Some things for women with hormone-negative breast cancer, including triple negative, to consider:

• The women studied were all premenopausal who were hormone-positive and were given hormonal therapy—either tamoxifen or Arimidex—plus goserelin (Zoladex) to suppress ovarian function.

• None received adjuvant (after surgery) chemotherapy;

The study found a 98 percent chance of survival in young women who were given ovarian suppression and hormone therapy drugs but did receive any chemotherapy.

So this could be great news for a narrow group of women.  Unfortunately, this does not include those of us with hormone-negative disease.

The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation has a great analysis of this

Back to the drawing board, docs.  Find us a cure.

(My thanks to the talented Deb Lattimore for sending me Dr. Love’s link.  You can read about Deb’s fight against triple negative, and enjoy her excellent photography, here. )

 

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