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Cancer 'Wonder Drug' Brings New Hope for Women Treatment for Breast Disease Approved for Scots Patients

Posted on: Monday, 7 March 2005, 15:00 CST

A NEW breast cancer "wonder drug" which could bring hope to thousands of Scots women has been given the go-ahead.

Femara, which slashes the chances of the disease returning after surgery, was officially approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, the Executive's drugs watchdog.

Doctors hailed the decision as a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease, the most common form of cancer among Scottish women.

More than 3500 women north of the border are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.

And, although survival rates are soaring, around 1000 women a year in Scotland die from the disease.

The "gold standard" treatment following surgery for breast cancer has been the drug tamoxifen. But it can be taken for only five years, after which it loses its potency and can have serious side- effects.

A third of women with breast cancer will have a recurrence after surgery and more than half these cases happen after tamoxifen treatment has ceased.

But now Femara - pharmaceutical name letrozole - will give thousands of women with breast cancer renewed hope.

The drug, taken in the form of a daily pill, will be prescribed initially to post-menopausal women who make up the majority of breast cancer patients.

It will be taken for three years after the end of a tamoxifen course by which time patients should be clear of the disease.

Each year, more than 700 women in Scotland complete tamoxifen therapy.

Dr Dave Cameron, consultant oncologist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where clinical trials of Femara have been taking place, warmly welcomed the SMC's approval of the drug.

He said: "This is truly excellent news. It means that Scottish clinicians can now prescribe Femara to all post-menopausal women with early breast cancer once they have finished the standard treatment.

"It throws a lifeline to women because, until now, there has been no therapy to switch to after tamoxifen to prevent their cancer coming back."

Mike Dixon, a consultant surgeon at the Western, added: "Many women who stop tamoxifen after five years worry that their cancer will return.

"With letrozole now available, these women can continue breast cancer treatment secure in the knowledge that it will further reduce the chance of cancer coming back."

Source: Evening Times; Glasgow (UK)

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