New strategy for boosting breast cancer survival

Women have better odds of surviving early breast cancer if they are switched to a newer drug after two or three years of tamoxifen, doctors are reporting.

It is the first evidence that drugs called aromatase inhibitors can save lives, not just prevent cancer from coming back.

Other new research suggests that the longer women take these drugs, the more they may benefit.

“This is a first attempt to get a grip on duration” of treatment, said the leader of one of the studies, Dr. James Ingle of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Longer is better.”

Tamoxifen has been a mainstay of breast cancer treatment for decades. Taking it for five years after cancer surgery cuts the risk of recurrence in half and improves survival. The drug blunts the effects of estrogen, a hormone that fuels the growth of most tumors that occur in women after menopause.

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