Further work will be required to establish whether or not this is the case. "We plan to use new, more clinically relevant, animal models of metastasis to assess the early events in the spread of cancer and effects of treatments like zoledronic acid," Prof Coleman says.

Dr Coleman's presentation to the congress coincides with the simultaneous publication of a paper about the research in the New England Journal of Medicine.

President of ECCO, Professor Michael Baumann, said: "It is important to note that so-called 'negative trials', that is trials that do not show the anticipated improvement in the endpoint selected, can yield very important information for further trials and also can feed important information back into preclinical research. Eventually negative trials, even if initially very disappointing for the investigators, can make important contributions to cancer research and to practice-changing new strategies relevant for cancer patients."

Commenting on the study, which he was not involved with, ESMO member Professor Christoph Zielinski from the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, said: "Whereas the earlier data from the AZURE trial did not show any influence of zoledronic acid upon outcomes in an unselected patient population, the present results show that post-menopausal patients do benefit from this treatment approach. These data are similar to the ABCSG 12 data reported earlier in which hormonal medication was given to premenopausal patients to induce premature menopause. Taken together, the two trials thus add up to a high level of evidence of a benefit of the addition of zoledronic acid to adjuvant therapy for early breast cancer in either naturally or medically induced postmenopausal women."

Source: European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress