A Manchester genetics specialist who spearheaded new health guidelines, suggesting a breast cancer prevention pill should be offered as an alternative to major surgery, has hailed it a ‘major breakthrough’.
Consultant in clinical genetics at St Mary’s Hospital, Professor Gareth Evans, helped develop National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidelines which suggest that women at high risk should be offered the £120 five-year course of the drugs tamoxifen or raloxifene as an alternative to surgery.
Professor Evans says the drugs are cost-effective and will save the NHS money – which is something the guidelines say is needed when the budget is under considerable pressure.
He told PA: “Treating someone with breast cancer costs many thousands of pounds.
“Tamoxifen is potentially not just cost-effective but cost-saving to the NHS and more importantly for women who don’t have to go through the stress and trauma of a diagnosis, radiotherapy and potentially chemotherapy.
“It’s a major breakthrough for women that they are going to be able to be offered this treatment in the future.”
According to NICE figures, roughly 50,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, and 3% of all women over the age of 35 would be eligible to take the drugs.
Breast cancer recently came into the spotlight after actress Angelina Jolie chose to have a double mastectomy after finding out she was at risk of contracting the disease – a route taken by thousands of women every year.
Tamoxifen has been used for 40 years to treat breast cancer in the UK and Raloxifene is currently liscensed to help treat ostereoposis in women who have gone through the menopause but neither drug is currently used as a preventative measure.
The guidelines come after long-term clinical trials found that tamoxifen, taken for five years, reduced the risk of developing invasive breast cancer by about 50% in post-menopausal women.
Another trial found that five years of raloxifene reduces breast cancer risk in such women by about 38%.
Iris David, Chairperson of the Blossom Appeal , a charity which raises money for the breast care unit at North Manchester General Hospital, said: “It is really good news and we think it is great that this will give people a choice instead of surgery.
“However the drugs will have side effects and patients will need counselling if they choose to go down this route.”
The treatment will be offered to women aged 35 and over deemed to have a high risk (more than 30%) or moderate risk (17%-30%) of contracting breast cancer.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief executive of the Breast Cancer Campaign, said the guidelines represented a ‘truly historic moment’ but again warned of potential side effects.
She said: “It is worth remembering that chemoprevention drugs have side effects and will not have the same risk-reducing impact for these women as preventative surgery – the choice recently made by Angelina Jolie – and the decision of what is right for each women depends on the individual risk they face and their personal choice based on their own circumstance.”
Picture courtesy of tr0tt3r via Flickr, with thanks
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