A Better Breast Cancer Drug (antifungal.)

[Guest guest]

Many have said that several forms of cancer are actually fungal in

nature. It's just called a different name. Why give an antifungal

medication if it's not fungal? Just a thought.

A Better Breast Cancer Drug

SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 8, 2004

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/health/main204.shtml

CBS/AP) A newer drug clearly outperforms tamoxifen at preventing

breast cancer from returning and should become the first-choice

treatment for most women who have had the disease, doctors are

reporting.

The drug, Arimidex, might be able to prevent 70 to 80 percent of the

most common type of tumors that occur in women after menopause,

compared to the 50 percent that tamoxifen is credited with warding

off, their research suggests.

Women who took Arimidex for five years after they were treated for

early-stage breast cancer were less likely to have cancer recur,

develop in the other breast or spread throughout their bodies than

women who took tamoxifen.

" Arimidex is a more effective treatment. This is a better drug, "

said Dr. Aman Buzdar, a specialist at the University of Texas' M.D.

Cancer Center. He headed the U.S. portion of the study,

which involved nearly 2,000 American women and an additional 7,300

from 20 other countries.

It was funded by Arimidex's maker, AstraZeneca PLC. Results were

reported Wednesday at a meeting in Texas of breast cancer experts

and were published online by the British medical journal The Lancet.

Tamoxifen revolutionized breast cancer treatment when it came into

use some three decades ago. It blunts the effects of estrogen, a

hormone that promotes the growth of about three-fourths of the

tumors that occur in postmenopausal women.

Arimidex, known generically as anastrozole, is one of three newer

drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which prevent estrogen from being

made in the first place instead of just keeping it from entering

cells. Excitement for Arimidex grew three years ago, when early

results from this same large international study suggested it was

better at preventing recurrence.

But many doctors were reluctant to recommend it instead of tried-and-

true tamoxifen, which has long been available in cheap, generic

form, on early results alone. Just last month, the world's largest

group of cancer specialists, the American Society for Clinical

Oncology, published new guidelines saying aromatase inhibitors were

promising drugs that at some point should be part of most breast

cancer patients' treatment, but not spelling out which drugs should

be used for which women and when.

The new five-year results on Arimidex are the most definitive,

finding that the drug improved disease-free survival by 26 percent

over tamoxifen.

Yet they fall short of meeting the toughest standard for proving a

drug's value — improving overall survival. Doctors in and outside

the study say that women in the study had very early cancers and

therefore the best possible prognosis, so seeing a difference

between groups getting one or the other drug likely will take longer

than five years.

In fact, 13 percent fewer cancer deaths occurred among Arimidex

users, but the trend wasn't strong enough to say it couldn't have

resulted from chance alone, Buzdar said.

Nevertheless, " I don't think you have to show a survival advantage

to change practice habits, " because of Arimidex's many other

benefits, said Dr. Goss, a Massachusetts General Hospital

breast cancer expert who had no role in this study but has led

others involving different aromatase inhibitors.

They include fewer cases of endometrial cancer, blood clots, hot

flashes and vaginal bleeding and discharge than among tamoxifen

users. Women on Arimidex had more joint pain and bone fractures,

though the latter can be treated with other drugs.

The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Senay says women

currently taking tamoxifen should talk to their doctors about

treatment options. " A tamoxifen study is still continuing to see if

it has any benefits when used for up to one year before switching to

the newer drugs, " Senay points out. " Some experts want to see those

results before dismissing tamoxifen completely. but most experts

agree that the use of tamoxifen alone is history, and patients

currently on tamoxifen for more than a year should be switched to

the newer drugs right away. "

The new findings on Arimidex for postmenopausal women don't change

tamoxifen's status as the drug of choice for breast cancer cases

that occur before menopause, because aromatase inhibitors aren't

thought to be effective against them. Women whose tumors are not

sensitive to the effects of estrogen also may be best off with

tamoxifen.