The drug, anastrozole, is being made available to women who are in greater danger because they have been through menopause and have a major family history of Britain’s commonest form of cancer.
“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,” said Amanda Pritchard, NHSC England’s chief executive.
The move to make anastrozole available to all eligible women represents a potential new frontier in the fight against Britain’s big killers because it is the first time that a drug which is already used to treat a condition has been “repurposed” to prevent the same disease from appearing.
Anastrozole is the first product of the pioneering Medicines Repurposing Programme, under which a consortium of key health bodies are examining the potential of existing drugs to be used for different purposes.
It could save 90% of women who are undergoing or have just been through the menopause from having a biopsy to diagnose the disease or rule it out, according to the results of research co-funded by the charity Eve Appeal and published in the Lancet Oncology.
Athena Lamnisos, the Eve Appeal’s chief executive, said many women who have a hysterectomy and biopsy when they are investigated for abnormal bleeding find it “extremely painful” and then face an “agonising” wait to get the result.
The original article contains 888 words, the summary contains 227 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The drug, anastrozole, is being made available to women who are in greater danger because they have been through menopause and have a major family history of Britain’s commonest form of cancer.
“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,” said Amanda Pritchard, NHSC England’s chief executive.
The move to make anastrozole available to all eligible women represents a potential new frontier in the fight against Britain’s big killers because it is the first time that a drug which is already used to treat a condition has been “repurposed” to prevent the same disease from appearing.
Anastrozole is the first product of the pioneering Medicines Repurposing Programme, under which a consortium of key health bodies are examining the potential of existing drugs to be used for different purposes.
It could save 90% of women who are undergoing or have just been through the menopause from having a biopsy to diagnose the disease or rule it out, according to the results of research co-funded by the charity Eve Appeal and published in the Lancet Oncology.
Athena Lamnisos, the Eve Appeal’s chief executive, said many women who have a hysterectomy and biopsy when they are investigated for abnormal bleeding find it “extremely painful” and then face an “agonising” wait to get the result.
The original article contains 888 words, the summary contains 227 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!