(1º§) Once-a-day tumour drug Anastrozole is to be repurposed as a preventative after research showed it slashed the threat by 49 per cent. The NHS in England will offer it to around 289,000 post-menopausal women who have genes that mean breast cancer runs in their family. It estimates 2,000 cancers could be prevented for every 36,000 women who take the drug for five years. 

(2º§) Doctors have been allowed to prescribe Anastrozole, also known as Arimidex, to prevent cancer since 2017 but it was never officially designated for this purpose, so was uncommon. A new licence from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency means it will now become standard care. The hormone therapy reduces ­levels of oestrogen that some tumours feed off.

(3º§) NHS England chief exec Amanda Pritchard said: "This is the first drug to be repurposed through a world-leading new programme to help us realise the full potential of existing medicines to save and improve lives." Baroness Delyth Morgan, of charity Breast Cancer Now, called the roll-out a "major step forward". Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: "[It] will enable more eligible women with a significant family history of breast cancer to reduce their chance of developing the disease." The treatment is taken as a 1mg tablet, once a day for five years.

(4º§) Trials have shown that the drug reduces breast cancer cases by 49 per cent over 11 years among eligible women. 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. The cases prevented by anastrozole could save the NHS £15 million in treatment costs.

(5º§) Around 47,000 women in England are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Health Minister Will Quince said: "Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK so I'm delighted that another effective drug to help to prevent this cruel disease has now been approved. "We've already seen the positive effect anastrozole can have in treating the disease when it has been detected in post-menopausal women and now we can use it to stop it developing at all in some women." 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/24652823/nhs-offer-anastrozole-breast -cancer/