Anastrozole: Repurposed drug could prevent thousands of breast cancer cases

Hundreds of thousands of women in England deemed at increased risk of breast cancer could soon be offered anastrozole, after the medicines regulator approved the drug for prevention.Anastrozole is authorised for treating breast cancer in postmenopausal women and has been used off label in some cases for prevention, but it has now received official approval for prevention in postmenopausal women at moderate or high risk of developing the disease. In trials anastrozole has been shown to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in this population by almost 50%.NHS England said that if 25% of the estimated 289 000 eligible women chose to take the drug around 2000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented in England and the NHS could save around £15m in treatment costs.Previous NICE guidance suggested that this preventive treatment would be initiated in secondary or tertiary care,1 although the NHS England announcement provided no details on…
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