ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A drug approved for osteoporosis prevention and treatment may also prevent breast and other types of cancer.

A study at the University of California at San Diego found post-menopausal women who took the drug raloxifene (Evista) were 55 percent less likely to develop invasive, estrogen-receptor (ER) positive breast cancer compared with women who did not take the drug. The drug reduced this risk for at least 8 years regardless of age, prior hormone use or baseline breast cancer risk.

“This is great because a lot of women have bone issues, and may be at a high risk for getting an invasive breast cancer,” Dr. Black said. “This medicine is a safe medicine that can prevent breast cancer.”

Raloxifene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), which means it has estrogen-like effects on tissues like bone, but anti-estrogen effects on tissues like breast tissue. Most post-menopausal women with breast cancer have invasive, ER positive breast cancer. When breast cancer is invasive, it has started to break through normal breast tissue barriers and invade surrounding areas. ER positive, or hormone responsive, means the breast cancer grows when it comes in contact with estrogen.