All drugs are known to have side effects, whether it's aspirin or morphine. Usually, painkiller side effects include such symptoms like nausea and light-headedness. Other drugs may induce tachycardia and even heart attacks. However, it has been discovered that side effects of drugs designed to cure or treat one affliction are also effective in other diseases and conditions.

Researchers have been immersed in testing a wide array of drugs that have been proven to be effective in treating breast cancer, more than 30 years after the medical world was introduced to tamoxifen, which reduced the risk of cancer re-occurrence in women with estrogen receptor-positive tumors.

Recently, several drugs have been proven to be effective in this respect. These drugs were presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas, on Thursday. The first drug that was presented on Thursday at the Breast Cancer Symposium was the osteoporosis drug zoledronic acid, Zometa. This drug has been tested and has been proven to be able to shrink breast tumors in patients who undergo chemotherapy. Zometa has already been proven successful and effective in treating breast cancer after it has metastasized to the bone.

Earlier this year, the same drug was proven to lower the risk of breast cancer recurrence in pre-menopausal women with early estrogen- or progesterone-positive tumors. After this discovery, it was concluded that the drug does more than just protect the bone.