Healthy, post-menopausal women at high risk for breast cancer may be eligible to participate in a major new international study to determine whether the drug exemestane can prevent the disease. UC Davis Medical Center is the first center in the United States chosen to participate in the study, funded by the Canadian National Cancer Institute. Ultimately more than 5,000 women throughout North America will be enrolled in the trial, which will last eight years.

"Exemestane may present a new breakthrough in the prevention of breast cancer, and has the potential to greatly decrease the risk of this deadly disease, with fewer side effects than currently available preventive medications," says John Robbins, professor of general medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center and principal investigator of the study.

Exemestane is one of a new class of anti-cancer medications known as aromatase inhibitors. Aromatase inhibitors have shown promise in preventing breast cancer recurrences in women previously treated for the disease, but have not yet been clinically studied as a way to prevent the disease in the first place. The new study will be the first designed to answer this question.

For more information about the exemestane study at UC Davis Medical Center, please contact Elizabeth Winward at (916) 734-5562, or e-mail Robbins direct at jarobbins@ucdavis.edu.