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Source: ONE News
New research suggests a very low dose of oestrogen might help women whose breast cancer has come back after treatment.
Even though most treatments are aimed at stopping oestrogen from fuelling tumours, the researchers says after years of this therapy the body may need some of the hormone to fight them off.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest a cheap way to help some patients with advanced breast cancer.
Dr Matthew Ellis of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues studied 66 women with advanced breast cancer who had been treated with newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors.
They include Pfizer's Aromasin, Novartis's Femara, and AstraZeneca Plc's Arimidex.
"The women in the study had all experienced a relapse while on estrogen-lowering drugs, and their disease was progressing," Ellis says.
"So they were faced with undergoing chemotherapy. We found that oestrogen treatment stopped disease progression in many patients and was much better tolerated than chemotherapy would have been."
The team gave the women a form of oestrogen called estradiol, in both high and very low doses.
Both doses helped 30% of the women, Ellis and colleagues say.
"We demonstrated clearly that the low dose was better tolerated than the high dose and was just as effective for controlling metastatic disease."
The treatment was not always permanent.
In 30% of the women helped by the estrogen, the tumours started growing again.
But going back on the aromatase inhibitors - a daily pill that is far less toxic than chemotherapy - helped a third of these women.
More than 400,000 women die from breast cancer globally every year.
About 75% of breast cancers are oestrogen-receptor-positive, meaning they are fed by oestrogen.
