DENVER -- October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, researchers in Great Britain presented early results from a study confirming again that a blood pressure drug may help prevent metastatic breast cancer.

This study builds on work released earlier this year, and is giving new hope of finding ways to help more women conquer this cancer.

What are metastases in breast cancer, and why this is such an important thing to prevent?

Cancers begin in a certain location in this instance the breast. However, many cancers become lethal when small bits of the primary tumor move through the blood stream and cause a tumor in a second or third site. In breast cancer, people most often see the metastases in bone, brain, and liver. In addition, in women with breast cancer, only 30 percent of the cases have metastases but these count for 90 percent of the breast cancer deaths.

So what did this new study show?

These are early results that show that a common type of blood pressure medication called beta blockers appears to prevent metastasis of breast cancer. In fact, one study showed that the risk was half of what it was without beta blockers.

Why would blood pressure medications do this?

Beta blockers help block the pathways that allow estrogen to accelerate breast cancer growth and spread. Currently, tamoxifen an anti-estrogen is used, but up to 50 percent of tumors can become resistant to it’s effects.

Why are they doing this work?

Scientific studies in the past showed that women who were on beta blockers at the time of surgery had less secondary tumors or metastases, than those who don’t. Other scientific work has shown the pathway that we just talked about. So now scientists are doing a study to better prove the link, and to see if some beta blocker drugs work better than others in preventing spread of the disease. Now they are doing a very large study 30,000 women to validate the findings in these smaller studies.

What does this mean for the way women are treated now?

Expect to see more and more women being given beta blockers as a part of their breast cancer therapy. There is more work to be done to completely understand exactly how to use these drugs to achieve the best results. However, these drugs are widely used and very safe, so we may expect this to catch on rather quickly.

What should women do now while the research is still going on?

As with anything, it is important to talk to your personal doctor about the best choices for your case. Ask if beta blockers are something you should consider as a part of your therapy for breast cancer.

Even more important is that this once again underscores the importance of catching breast cancer early before it has spread. Monthly self examination and mammograms according to the recommended screening schedule help save lives.

What about women who have a hard time paying for mammograms?

There are many programs that help women get free or low cost mammograms – check out websites such as the Komen foundation to get more information.