A new skin gel has been shown to treat blood cancer without causing harmful side effects. The drug, Tamoxifen, provides noninvasive cancer treatment to the same extent as the oral form of medication, but without as many side effects, including blood clots.

According to new research from Northwestern Medicine®, Tamoxifen reduces the growth of cancer cells without many of the related side effects that deter some cancer patients from taking the drug.

Tamoxifen is currently an oral drug used to prevent breast cancer, while helping to treat non-invasive breast cancer and invasive cancer.

According to recent research, the fact that the drug was readily absorbed into the breast tissue lead to lower levels of the drug within the blood and fewer risks of developing dangerous side effects such as uterine cancer or blood clots.

The gel was tested on women with non-invasive cancer ductal carcinoma in situ. This patient population is often reluctant to take Tamoxifen in its oral form due to potentially risky side effects.

Lead study author Seema Khan, MD, surgical oncologist at Northwestern Medicine®, said in a statement, “Delivering the drug though a gel, if proven effective in larger trials, could potentially replace oral tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention and DCIS and encourage many more women to take it.” He continued, “For breast cancer prevention and DCIS therapy, effective drug concentrations are required in the breast. For these women, high circulating drug levels only cause collateral damage.”

According to breastcancer.org, nearly one in eight women, or over 12 percent, will develop invasive breast cancer during the course of her lifetime.