Life-saver for breast disease

THOUSANDS more Britons with advanced breast cancer will soon get access to a life-saving drug that can halt the disease from progressing for up to two years.

The UK medicines watchdog the MHRA has now approved the treatment, called Enhertu, as a second line therapy – which means patients who have stopped responding to one standard drug can be offered it.

Previously, the drug – which is for patients with tumour cells that have a protein receptor called HER2 on their surface – was only available to those who had tried two other drugs.

Professor Peter Schmid, from the

Barts Cancer Institute, who led the trials, said: ‘It means more women will get the treatment earlier, which will make a huge difference.’