A new drug to fight osteoporosis may also help in fighting against several other diseases. It may help postmenopausal women in reducing their risk of facing broken bones as well as fight breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke, according to the recent study.

Women suffering with osteoporosis who took a 0.5-milligram daily dose of lasofoxifene, a drug used to cure the disease, had a 42% lower risk of vertebral fractures and a 24% lower risk of non-vertebral fractures. Women taking lasofoxifene had an 81% lower risk of estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, a 32% lower risk of heart-related events like heart attack, and a 36% lower risk of stroke.

According to lead study author Dr. Steven Cummings, Professor and Director of the San Francisco Coordinating Center at the University of California San Francisco, lasofoxifene looks excellent.

"It may turn out to be a dynamite drug, but it's not anything I would rush in to use as a clinician. There are too many unknowns", said Dr. Carolyn Becker, who wrote an editorial in New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was based on 8,556 women who were aged 59 to 80 and had osteoporosis to take a daily dose of the drug or a placebo for five years.