NHS to offer 300,000 women at high risk of breast cancer a 4p pill that could halve danger
ALMOST 300,000 women at high risk of breast cancer are to be offered a 4p pill on the NHS that could halve the danger.
Once-a-day tumour drug Anastrozole is to be repurposed as a preventative after research showed it slashed the threat by 49 per cent.
The NHS in England will offer it to around 289,000 post-menopausal women who have genes that mean breast cancer runs in their family.
It estimates 2,000 cancers could be prevented for every 36,000 women who take the drug for five years.
Doctors have been allowed to prescribe Anastrozole, also known as Arimidex, to prevent cancer since 2017 but it was never officially designated for this purpose, so was uncommon.
A new licence from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency means it will now become standard care.
READ MORE HEALTH NEWS
The hormone therapy reduces levels of oestrogen that some tumours feed off.
NHS England chief exec Amanda Pritchard said: “This is the first drug to be repurposed through a world-leading new programme to help us realise the full potential of existing medicines to save and improve lives.”
Baroness Delyth Morgan, of charity Breast Cancer Now, called the roll-out a “major step forward”.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: "[It] will enable more eligible women with a significant family history of breast cancer to reduce their chance of developing the disease.”
Most read in Health
The treatment is taken as a 1mg tablet, once a day for five years.
Trials have shown that the drug reduces breast cancer cases by 49 per cent over 11 years among eligible women.
The most common side effects of the medicine are hot flushes, feeling weak, pain/stiffness in the joints, arthritis, skin rash, nausea, headache, osteoporosis, and depression.
The cases prevented by anastrozole could save the NHS £15 million in treatment costs.
Around 47,000 women in England are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.
Health Minister Will Quince said: “Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK so I’m delighted that another effective drug to help to prevent this cruel disease has now been approved.
“We’ve already seen the positive effect anastrozole can have in treating the disease when it has been detected in post-menopausal women and now we can use it to stop it developing at all in some women.”
'Anastrozole changed my life, I can live worry-free'
Lesley-Ann Woodhams, 61, says she can finally live without fear after being offered anastrozole.
She was at increased risk of developing the disease and had a family history of breast cancer.
Lesley-Ann completed the full five-year course of anastrozole in January 2023.
She said: “Taking anastrozole was an easy decision for me, as I’d watched my mum battle breast cancer and my risk was very high.
"Anastrozole reduced my risk of developing breast cancer, meaning I could live a life without constantly worrying or giving a thought to what could be if I’d developed breast cancer.
"It really was a gift, it gave my family and myself peace of mind and more importantly, a continued future to look forward to.
"I’m grateful for every day I took this drug – it was life-changing. Anastrozole has allowed me to continue living my life as I’d planned.”