A SINGLE pill a day can slash the odds of breast cancer in women at high risk, a study says.
Those taking anastrozole over five years were 61 per cent less likely to develop the disease, tests revealed.
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Seven years after coming off the medication, also known as Arimidex, they were still at 49 per cent lower risk. The pill should be the “drug of choice” in most cases for post-menopausal women at high breast cancer risk, say experts.
It works better than popular alternative Tamoxifen which has been shown to reduce risk by 28 per cent.
Tamoxifen also has more side-effects than anastrozole including higher heart disease risk, mood swings and a loss of sex drive. Both are hormonal therapies in tablet form.
Study leader Professor Jack Cuzick, of Queen Mary University of London, called the results “exciting”.
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A BLOOD test could transform treatment for women with advanced breast cancer.
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The new technique takes just two days.
Cancer Research UK funded the study presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas.
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He said: “It makes a strong case for anastrozole being the drug of choice for post-menopausal women at high risk of developing breast cancer.” He added Tamoxifen could be offer- ed to the “relatively few” with serious anastrozole side-effects.
Cancer Research UK hailed the “reassuring” study on 3,864 women worldwide as it was the first to show anastrozole gave better protection years after patients stopped taking it.
More than 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer a year in the UK. It causes more than 11,000 deaths annually.
