Cancer drug plus the Pill relieves endometriosis

A drug used to treat and prevent breast cancer, Arimidex, can significantly reduce the pain of endometriosis when taken daily along with an oral contraceptive, investigators in the U.S. report.

Endometriosis is an often-painful condition in which tissue that normally lines the uterus is found elsewhere in the abdomen. Current treatments for endometriosis are ineffective for many women or have dangerous side effects, Dr. Serdar E. Bulun, from Northwestern University in Chicago, and his associates note in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

Arimidex inhibits an enzyme, aromatase, involved in estrogen synthesis, and it was recently found that high levels of aromatase are expressed in endometrial tissue of women with endometriosis.

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