'Allowing more women to live healthier lives, free of breast cancer is truly remarkable'

TENS of thousands of women who are at increased risk of breast cancer could benefit from a "remarkable" drug to prevent the disease, the NHS will announce today.

- Hanna Geissler

The daily pill reduces the amount of oestrogen - a hormone sometimes used by cancers to help them grow produced by the body.

Trials have shown anastrozole can halve the incidence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women who are at elevated risk, including those with a family history.

The drug has been used to treat breast cancer for years and prescribed to a small number of patients as a preventative measure off-label since 2017.

Treatment

But from today it will be officially licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as a preventative treatment, opening the door for thousands more to benefit.

Two other drugs are available to reduce the risk of breast cancer tamoxifen and raloxifene - but anastrozole is now considered to be the most effective.

NHS England said 289,000 women aged 50 to 69 who are at moderate or high risk of breast cancer could be eligible, though not all are expected to take the drug. Estimates suggest that if one in four started the treatment this could prevent 2,000 breast cancer cases over their lifetimes and save the health service £15million.

The drug will mean women can "live without fear of breast cancer", said NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard.