Two separate studies by researchers claim that two inexpensive generic drugs could reduce breast cancer deaths in postmenopausal women, says the study published in the journal The Lancet.

If one of the drugs either aromatase inhibitors or bisphosphonates is taken by post-menopausal woman with breast cancer at its early stages it would reduce the chances of recurrence as well as increase the life span of the patient. Furthermore if both the drugs are taken together the anti-carcinogenic effect of the drugs is elevated while the side effects are lessened on the other hand, reported Yahoo News.

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Bisphosphonates is the drug prescribed for osteoporosis; whereas, aromatase inhibitors are hormone inhibitor drugs used in the treatment of breast and ovarian cancers in postmenopausal women. Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group of University of Oxford in England announced the results of the studies from data collected from randomised trials of early breast cancer, according to IB Times.

The meta-study by Institute of Cancer Research, UK, and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in England analysed data from nine trails involving 30,000 post-menopausal women and observed that subjects that took aromatase inhibitors were at one third less risk of cancer recurrence than other patients and also at 15 percent less risk of breast cancer death.

Paul Workman from the Institute of Cancer Research in London said that "The evidence on aromatase inhibitors has been accumulating for well over a decade, but it has taken this huge and complex study to make sense of all the data, and provide a firm basis for clinical guidelines." He also added that "It tends to be the discovery of new treatments that grabs the headlines, but it is just as important to maximize the benefit patients get from existing treatments through major, practice-changing studies like this," according to Tech Times.

According to one another study conducted by Institute of Cancer Research, UK patients that consumed bisphosphonates had better life expectancy when they consumed the drug for two to five years from the onset of cancer. 

"The drugs are complementary, because the main side effect of aromatase inhibitors is an increase in bone loss and fractures, while bisphosphonates reduce bone loss and fractures as well as improving survival," noted Richard Gray, the lead statistician for both studies and a professor at Oxford.

TagsAromatase inhibitors, Bisphosphonates, breast cancer, Osteoporosis, Ovarian Cancer