Study Comparing Breast Cancer Drugs Could Change Way Doctors Treat Patients

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- For breast cancer survivors, there's always a fear that the cancer will return.

Many of them take medicine, sometimes for years, that helps prevent recurrence; but that medicine also carries risks for other problems.

So, what if there was a safer, yet just as effective, alternative?

Dolores Simkovic, of North Huntingdon, plays word games to keep on top of her mind. She had regular mammograms to keep on top of her health.

"A couple times they told me I had calcium deposits, nothing to worry about," said Simkovic.

Ten years ago, a different radiologist gave her different news, and a biopsy showed cancer. She had a lumpectomy and radiation, and she participated in a clinical trial.

"Dr. Julian said I would be an ideal candidate," said Simkovic. "Because I was 72, and my body was still intact. I had all my organs and so on, which apparently would influence the study."

In some cases, breast cancer is activated by the hormone estrogen. Certain drugs can block the effects of estrogen, and can reduce cancer occurrence and recurrence. An example is tamoxifen.

Some drugs block the formation of estrogen in fat cells. An example is anastrozole.

This particular study compared the two drugs.

One of the issues with tamoxifen is that it carries an increased risk for uterine cancer, broken bones and blood clots. Doctors wanted to see if anastrozole would be an effective, yet safer, alternative.

To be included in the study, patients had to be post-menopausal with a diagnosis of a type of breast cancer called DCIS, sensitive to hormones, and treated with lumpectomy and radiation.

In the National Institutes of Health Multi-Center trial of 3,000 women over three years, two dozen were followed locally.

"I had regular questionnaires about every little detail. And I also had a nurse who called me regularly to check on how I was doing," said Simkovic.

They were randomly assigned to get either tamoxifen or anastrozole, but only the study coordinators knew which one.

"I still don't know what I took," Simkovic said.

The results showed that working just as well as the old standard is the drug with the safer profile.

"It starts to be pretty apparent which drug for the post-menopausal woman should be the drug of choice. It's a good drug, and I think it gives women a new option for treatment," said Dr. Thomas Julian, a breast cancer specialist at Allegheny General Hospital. "The other real question was - do you think this is going to change practice? And the answer is, we think it will."

As of now, this research has only been presented at a conference and not yet published in a peer reviewed journal.

As for Simkovic, she is 10 years cancer free and is glad to have contributed to the study.

"I'm very glad I did. I would encourage other people who are offered the opportunity to do so also," she said. "If we all work together, we can conquer this yet."

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