We must remove access barriers to endocrine drugs for breast cancer prevention

It was a welcome surprise to see anastrozole in the national headlines recently.1 The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK has granted a licence for its use2 as a preventive medicine in women who are post-menopause and at higher risk of breast cancer—this is in addition to the already licensed drug tamoxifen which is available for the same purposes to women who are pre-menopause. Anastrozole and other risk-reducing endocrine drugs are promising preventive treatments, but substantial barriers to access must be overcome to ensure eligible women can benefit.The addition of anastrozole is positive news because it is a drug that provides the same, or even better, outcomes in breast cancer prevention than tamoxifen, but with a different side effect profile, making it potentially safer than tamoxifen for use in women who are post-menopause.In 2021 I acted as GP clinical champion to the NHS England “Rapid Uptake Products”…
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