zometa clinical trial

ohilly
ohilly Member Posts: 441
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I am early stage breast cancer and am going to be given Zometa as part of a clinical trial, starting on Monday. This drug has received a lot of publicity that it may prevent recurrence in early stage bc, and I wondered if anyone has any knowledge about the drug or has read about it? Ohilly

Comments

  • seof
    seof Member Posts: 819 Member
    I have not read about it or experienced it, but you might see if chemocare.com has any information on it, or you could look on the ACS website, or a research facility such as M.D. Anderson in Houston, TX. might have infromation on their website about clinical trials. I am sure your Doctor could suggest resources where you could read about other clinical trials. Sometimes medical journals are hard for us "regular" folk to decipher, but it might be a start.

    good luck with your search seof.
  • mgm42
    mgm42 Member Posts: 491 Member
    YOU GO GIRL!. Your participation may help a whole bunch of us. Hurray for you! Hugs, Marilynn
  • tlmac
    tlmac Member Posts: 272 Member
    I take Fosamax (oral) and have no personal experience with Zometa but I've read recently that they believe it may make the bones an "inhospitable" place for cancer cells to multiply and spread. For this reason, they'll administer it to early stage BC and see if it protects them from metastasis. That's the good news. The bad news is it's been associated with a condition called osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). From what I understand, an injury to the jaw or even a tooth extraction can cause a severe infection to settle in the jaw bone that's difficult, if not impossible, to clear up. It happens in a very very very small percentage of people receiving bisphosphonates, like Fosamax and Zometa, but it's something we all need to be aware of. You can Google it for more information.
    I think the clinical trial sounds terrific, ohilly. Best of luck!
    terri