GIVE HEALTHY WOMEN 4P A DAY BREAST CANCER PILL

NHS watchdog urges doctors to offer drug to 600,000 patients at higher risk

AT least 600,000 healthy women should be offered cheap pills that halve the risk of breast cancer, the NHS watchdog says today.

New guidelines from Nice instruct doctors to consider anastrozole for anyone over 50 with a high or medium chance of the disease.

Costing just 4p a day, the drug has been shown to slash the risk of breast cancer by 53 per cent if taken for five years. Experts at Nice believe their recommendation could save 39,000 over-50s from the killer disease.

Trials have shown that anastrozole is even more effective than the wonder drug tamoxifen – and has far fewer side effects. The watchdog hopes to prompt women to have their risk of breast cancer assessed at family history clinics.

It estimates that about 622,970 women would be eligible for anastrozole. Nice already urges doctors to consider offering 6p-a-day tamoxifen to higher risk patients.

But research earlier this month found that four in ten GPs were reluctant to prescribe it – mainly due to its side effects – and many were unaware of its

benefits. Nicola Smith, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Taking a pill to reduce the risk of breast cancer is an encouraging new option for post-menopausal women at high risk of the disease.

‘For most women the side effects of anastrozole are likely to be less severe than those experienced with tamoxifen which also reduces breast cancer risk.

‘It’s important for women to consult their doctor if they think they might be at high risk of breast cancer.’

In its draft guidelines today, Nice calculates that if 1,000 high risk women took anastrozole for five years, 35 breast cancer cases would be prevented. The comparable figure for tamoxifen is 21.

Professor Mark Baker, director of the centre for guidelines at Nice, said: ‘The evidence examined by the committee suggests anastrozole will not only reduce the number of breast cancer cases in these women compared with tamoxifen, but it is also a more cost-effective option.’

The drug works by stopping the action of an enzyme called aromatase. Found in fatty tissue, it makes the cancer-triggering hormone oestrogen.

But anastrozole is only effective after the menopause because younger women produce large amounts of oestrogen from their ovaries, which the drug does not block.

Women taking it are far less likely to suffer the side effects found with tamoxifen, including hot flushes, blood clots and thinning of the bones.

Charities fear GPs will be reluctant to prescribe anastrozole because, like tamoxifen, it has not been licensed for preventative use.

This means GPs could be sued by women who suffer severe side effects. Baroness Delyth Morgan of Breast Cancer Now said: ‘That the most effective preventive drug for post-menopausal women at high risk of breast cancer has now been recommended for routine use is fantastic news.

‘Studies have shown anastrozole cuts the risk of the disease in post-menopausal women by more than 50 per cent in the first five years, and, crucially, it has fewer side effects than other preventive options such as tamoxifen and raloxifene.

‘However – like tamoxifen – anastrozole is not licensed for this purpose, and we are concerned that patients will therefore not be able to access this treatment, despite this recommendation.’

Professor Tony Howell, scientific director of the charity Prevent Breast Cancer, said: ‘Anastrozole is a proven method of preventing breast cancer in post-menopausal women and it’s essential that GPs are given the appropriate tools and guidance so that they can offer patients the best course of preventative therapy.

‘It’s important that women at high and moderate risk are educated on the options available to them and are given the correct support at the right time.’

More than 53,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year with 11,000 deaths. Women are advised to see their GP if their mother or sister develops the illness under 40 or if two or more relatives have it at any age.

Nice guidelines state that anyone with a medium or high probability of developing breast cancer should be offered more frequent screening or in some cases preemptive surgery.

Statistically about one in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point, with faulty genes the key factor.