A recent drug study that shows a higher success rate in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer than tamoxifen has prompted women to ask for immediate change to the new drug.

The drug, exemestane, is a hormonal drug sold under the brand Aromasin. It is part of a newer class of breast cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors.

The international study of 4,742 postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer found that those who took tamoxifen for two years and then switched to exemestane for another two years were one-third less likely to suffer a recurrence than those who took tamoxifen the whole time.

The women switching to exemestane also had less-serious side effects, were 56 percent less likely to get cancer in the other breast, and were half as likely to develop unrelated cancer in other parts of the body.

Since the report was published in March in the New England Journal of Medicine, Northside Hospital nurse researcher Kim Sabolek, RN, who is working with medical oncologist Janice Galleshaw, has already switched several women from tamoxifen to Aromasin.

"As soon as they started talking about it in the news, I had women saying, 'I want that.' "

"What we can say to women who have been on two years of tamoxifin is this drug reduces the risk of [cancer] recurrence by 32 percent more than taxmoxifen," Sabolek said.

The study focused on women with breast cancer in which the hormone estrogen fuels tumor growth - the type responsible for about 70 percent of breast cancer.

The results do not apply to premenopausal women or those with tough-to-treat breast cancer not driven by estrogen.

The research for the international study was partly funded by Pfizer Inc., the maker of Aromasin.

Aromatase inhibitors have been around since the 1970s, but high toxicity limited their use. Today's third generation aromatase inhibitors - including Aromasin, Femara and Arimidex - work better and are less toxic.

- The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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