Israeli Researchers Use Existing Drugs In New Breast Cancer Therapy  

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new treatment course for patients with metastasizing breast cancer, using medication already on the market. 

Based on tissue samples from American and Israeli patients and using an animal model, the researchers from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences showed that a combination of existing drugs can hinder the spread of cancer to the bones, thereby improving the chances of survival. 

More than 75 percent of patients with metastatic breast cancer see it spread to the bone. 

The researchers also predicted that this therapy can be used not only to treat breast cancer but other forms of the disease as well. 

The details of the study, which was led by Prof. Neta Erez and Dr. Lea Monteran at the former’s Laboratory for Tumor Biology, were published recently in a journal of the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research. 

“Our findings suggest that the combined treatment… can be effective for treating bone metastasis resulting from breast cancer, as well as other types of cancer,” said Prof. Erez.

“The great advantage of our strategy is that both drugs are already available on the market, and consequently the process of obtaining permits to use them against bone metastasis in humans can be relatively short. At the same time, clinical trials are needed to verify the effectiveness of the new therapeutic strategy.”