Washington ? Women past menopause got another option Wednesday to treat early-stage breast cancer, with the approval of a drug aimed at staving off recurrences.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Femara, a medication manufactured by Novartis Pharmaceuticals and belonging to the class called aromatase inhibitors. Femara already is approved for women past menopause with advanced breast cancer.

Approval of Femara’s new use comes as a team of Swiss researchers reports in today’s New England Journal of Medicine that the drug fared better than tamoxifen, the long-favored treatment for early-stage breast cancer for women of all ages.

A mainstay for more than two decades, tamoxifen is the most widely prescribed anti-cancer drug and is credited with helping save the lives of millions of women. But doctors reporting their findings today say aromatase inhibitors are free of tamoxifen’s more worrisome side effects, such as endometrial cancer and potentially fatal blood clots.