Zometa, marketed by Novartis AG, is the most widely prescribed drug for prevention of bone complications due to bone metastases. The drug has been used in more 2.7 million patients worldwide. It had 2008 sales of $1.4 billion.

 

The study involved 1,803 premenopausal women with tumors that were fueled by estrogen. They were given treatment to suppress their ovary function, and received the generic drug tamoxifen or AstraZeneca Plc’s Arimidex, with or without Zometa. They were treated for three years and observed for one more year.

 

After three years, women who took Zometa had a 36 percent reduction in cancer recurrence and metastases, compared with women who did not get it. After one more year, 54 women who received Zometa and 83 who did not had a recurrence of their cancer or had a new cancer in the opposite breast or a metastasis to their bones.

 

Lead author of the study, Michael Gnant, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, said: "The possible return of breast cancer is a major concern among women who've undergone surgery to remove their tumors. We anticipate that this publication in The New England Journal of Medicine will provide oncologists with evidence regarding an additional treatment regimen to further help reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence, or even death, for premenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer."