a potential break through in the fight against breast cancer. researchers finding a drug to treat osteoporosis has now been shown to stop the growth of breast cancer cells. so, dr. segel, it s fascinating how this drug was, in fact, discovered. let me talk about what s at stake here. 70% of breast cancer is estrogen receptor positive, meaning estrogen makes the cancer grow. we use tamoxifan. cancer figures it out, mutates. it makes it inactive, turns against it. the cancer grows more. we still need to target the estrogen receptors. this drug destroys the receptor. this drug can be useful when at that mocks i fan has failed. fox news yesterday spoke to dr. mcdonald who s the head researcher on this. let s have a look. what we decided to do, rather than wait around, we go back and
look at drugs that have been sitting in drawers for the last 10 or 15 years and made the rather remarkable surprise that a drug, which has recently been approved in europe, has all of the characteristics that we want to treat end stage breast cancer. this type of drug which actually destroys the estrogen receptor and has been a holy grail and was sitting there all the time. can you imagine, heather. we go back and look at drugs that we ve been overlooking or for other things. in europe this is getting approved for osteoporosis. oncologists will be able to use it for breast cancer. there will be clinical trials. you spoke to him yesterday. i spoke to him yesterday. he was clearly very excited about this discovery. he said it was hopeful for breast cancer patients. the next step will be getting clinical trials in the united states. what do you think the time frame would be for that? last point. i ll switch to david. this is eric s greatest question. right. in europe i think the
patients who progressed on the standard drugs. in previous up to now, what really is being considered is that at the end of this therapy, a woman had to go on to classical chemotherapy. and this type of drug, which actually destroys the estrogen receptor, has been a holy grail and it was sitting this all the time. heather: so doctor, what is next for the drug? what happens next in terms of its use? yes. so first of all, the drug has been approved for osteoporosis in europe. and that s exciting because near term clinical trials or clinical use of this drug is possible. i do know that the drug is up in front of the f.d.a. for registration for osteoporosis and we re hoping that after this exciting data that we ve just recently published, that the manufacturers of the drug will be encouraged to test this in trials of late stage breast cancer. gregg: so as i understand it, this osteoporosis drug, not really intended originally for
we have been interested in estrogen receptor, a major target in breast cancer for years. it s the primary target of most of the therapies out there for breast cancer. we realized in late stage disease that the estrogen receptor remain has target, even though tactical therapies failed. we decided to rather than wait around to discover brand-new drugs, was look at drugs sitting in the drawers for the last ten or 15 years and really made the rather remarkable surprise that a drug, which has haven tly been approved in europe, has all the characteristics of the drug we really want to treat end stage breast cancer. gregg: what is the name of the drug, doctor, and which breast cancer patients would benefit the most from it? correct. so the drug is called b. adoxifin. developed by pfizer pharmaceuticals for the treatment of osteoporosis. and what we ended up finding was that it would be useful for patients who have failed standard endocrin therapy.
breast cancer, it attacks the estrogen receptor, which is a critical component that leads to breast cancer. so are there some other drugs that also hit the receptor? yeah. so all endocrin therapies, they actually hit the estrogen receptor in different ways. what this drug does, though, is rather than just blocking the action of the estrogen receptor, it totally obliterates the receptor and takes it out of the equation. completely different. there is one drug on the market that is approved that does the same thing. the problem with that is that it s a great drug in theory. but it s pharmaceutical properties have really limited its use. this drug is an orally available drug. not classical therapy. it s another endocrin therapy in the next stage, in the treatment of a chronic disease. heather: doctor, just the sound of your voice, you re expressing, you seem very, very hopeful. no doubt breast cancer patients