Professor Michael Gnant talks to ecancertv at the 2010 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Zometa, an osteoporosis drug from Novartis, failed to improve disease free survival of early breast cancer patients in a substantial clinical trial. The AZURE trial included 3360 patients from 174 centres. Prof Robert Coleman, of the University of Sheffield, England, and colleagues including Prof Gnant, randomized stage II and III patients to standard therapy or standard therapy plus zoledronic acid for five years. The use of Zometa made no difference to survival in the study’s overall population though there was some benefit in older patients. There was a 29 percent improvement in overall survival observed in the 1,101 patients who were five years post-menopause. Prof Gnant also discusses his abstract on the carry-over effect of adjuvant zoledronic acid: "Comparison of 48- and 62-month analyses of ABCSG-12 suggests that the benefits of combining zoledronic acid with adjuvant endocrine therapy persist long after completion of therapy".