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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved a hormone treatment as a preventative option for post-menopausal women who are at increased risk of breast cancer.
Anastrozole has been used for many years as breast cancer treatment, but despite NICE recommending it for prevention in 2007, it has not yet been licensed for this purpose.
The MHRA says the announcement “confirms the authorisation for prevention in post-menopausal women at moderate or high risk of developing the disease.”
Anastrozole is taken once a day for five years
Anastrozole is an aromatase inhibitor which blocks the enzyme ‘aromatase’, thereby reducing the amount of oestrogen that a patient’s body makes.
The treatment is taken as a 1mg tablet, once a day for five years.
The most common side effects of the medicine are hot flushes, feeling weak, pain/stiffness in the joints, arthritis, skin rash, nausea, headache, osteoporosis, and depression.
Anyone who suspects they are having a side effect from this medicine is encouraged to talk to their doctor, pharmacist or nurse and report it directly to the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme.
Anastrozole could halve the risk of breast cancer
In a clinical trial, fewer women developed breast cancer in the anastrozole group compared to the placebo group.
Almost 4,000 post-menopausal women took part in the trial and were given either anastrozole or a placebo for five years. In those who took anastrozole, the risk of breast cancer dropped by a 53% – roughly halving the risk.
One patient, Lesley-Ann Woodhams, 61, who completed the full five-year course of anastrozole in January 2023 said the treatment helped her to live life without “constantly worrying”.
“Taking anastrozole was an easy decision for me, as I’d watched my mum battle breast cancer and my risk was very high.
“It really was a gift, it gave my family and myself peace of mind and more importantly, a continued future to look forward to. I’m grateful for every day I took this drug – it was life-changing. Anastrozole has allowed me to continue living my life as I’d planned,” she said.
The first drug to be relicensed as part of NHS England’s Medicines Repurposing Programme
NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “It’s fantastic that this vital risk-reducing option could now help thousands of women and their families avoid the distress of a breast cancer diagnosis.
“Allowing more women to live healthier lives, free of breast cancer is truly remarkable, and we hope that licensing anastrozole for a new use today represents the first step to ensuring this risk-reducing option can be accessed by all who could benefit from it.
“This is the first drug to be repurposed through a world-leading new programme to help us realise the full potential of existing medicines in new uses to save and improve more lives on the NHS. Thanks to this initiative, we hope that greater access to anastrozole could enable more women to take risk-reducing steps if they’d like to, helping them live without fear of breast cancer.”