Breast cancer - August 13, 2008 (DAILY MAIL)
A cheap drug that has been used to treat brittle bones has actually been found to halt breast cancer, according to scientists. When used with a common chemotherapy drug, the tumours actually stop growing, and the cancer remains in the same place even after the treatment has finished.
These results were so drastic that researchers believe this combination could be better at fighting the disease than any other drugs that have been mixed already. The bone drug, zoledronic acid, costs under £1,000 per year for treatment. This should not be a problem for the NHS, because this costs less than one-twentieth of the breast cancer 'wonder drug' Herceptin.
It is thought that the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin makes the tumour sensitive to the bone-strengthening zoledronic acid. The treatment causes the cancer cells to self-destruct, and blocks the growth of the blood vessels needed to fuel tumours with oxygen and nutrients.
Where both of the drugs are quite cheap and are already in widespread use, the treatment could be approved for patients in as little as two years. This provides doctors with a much-needed new weapon for a disease that kills more than 1,000 women a month in Britain. This combination of drug is now being tested on 3,000 women with the results due in six months. The treatment is actually pretty simple, and is not very unpleasant. It could probably also be applied to other cancers.
The British researchers worked with Finnish colleagues to examine the effect of using the doxorubicin, one of the most common breast cancer treatments, in combination with zoledronic acid, a member of the bisphosphonate family used to treat osteoporosis.
Tests were actually performed with mice, and the results showed that when doxorubicin was given first, and then followed 24 hours later by zoledronic acid, it stopped 99.99% of the tumour growth. Professor Coleman said: "The tumours didn't grow at all and the mice remained fit and healthy. When we stopped the treatment, they still didn't grow. This was a treatment that seemed to carry on working when it was stopped." However, when the order of the drugs was reversed, or the drugs administered on their own, the treatment didn't work as well.
The final results on the 3,000 women taking the drugs are not due until next year, but the indications show that the results after surgery could look promising. Professor Coleman also added how they are quite optimistic that the combination of treatment will work better than chemotherapy, or any other drugs that are being used at the moment to stop cancer from returning.
Pamela Goldberg of the Breast Cancer Campaign that funded the study said "The results of this study are very encouraging and could change the way breast cancer patients are treated. The good news is the two treatments used in this study are relatively inexpensive and are already used in the clinic. Therefore we should quickly see the benefits of giving women the best possible chance of beating breast cancer."
James Mackay, a consultant at University College London, said "The concept that a drug we give for one purpose has got an anti-tumour effect is very exciting. Breakthroughs like this are very welcome."