Think Pinker

Premenopausal women with breast cancer may have a new option according to the LA times. A new drug reduces estrogen levels in these women and can prevent breast cancer from reoccuring.  That’s exciting since there has been few break throughs in the last year or so.

This drug is called Zoladex and was shown to be as affective as Tomoxifen. This was after following the women for 15 years from their first treatments.

The study was first published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute today and it says women who used Zoladex and are premonpausal have a much lower risk of reoccurance. They also say that if you have been using Tomoxifen but are experiencing too many side effects that you might consider changing to Zoladex.

Both of these drugs are associated with hot flases and Zoladex may also cause bone loss. Of course you will need to discuss with your doctor all treatment options that are available to you. 

1 out of every 229 women under the age of 39 will be diagnosed wiht breast cancer. You’ll be glad to know that the five year survival rate for premenopausal women with breast cancer is 82%. More than 11,000 women over the age of 40 will be diagnoes with breast cancer and more than 1100 will die according to the American Cancer Society.

There is a need for continuous research so that new break throughs can be made and this is just one example of a small break through that can help reduce a woman’s risk of redeveloping breast cancer after an initial diagnosis.

Almost all of uw know someone that has fought breast cancer - a friends, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a grandmother, a grandaughter - it doesn’t matter who. But it also tells all of us just why we need to continue to raise money so that further tratments can be found. Better yet so that a cure for breast cancer can be found!