Breast cancer drugs set for preventative use

Almost all of the newspapers and their websites are leading with the news that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published draft guidelines recommending that women with a high risk of familial breast cancer should be offered preventative drug treatments. The news is based on draft guidelines released by NICE for the care of women at risk of developing breast cancer that runs in families (familial breast cancer). The new draft guidelines update the 2006 guidelines, and include new recommendations on genetic testing and monitoring of the disease.  New proposals are also included for the use of preventative therapies for people who don't have breast cancer, but who are considered to be at high risk of developing the disease because of a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer, and other specific cancers. The recommendation attracting most media coverage is that women with a high risk of developing familial breast cancer are given drug treatments such as tamoxifen to lower their risk of developing the disease. This would be the first time in the UK that a non-surgical preventative treatment approach would be used to tackle familial breast cancer. However, the guidelines are still in the early stages of the consultation process, which is taking place between January 2013 and February 2013. The recommendations may undergo changes prior to final publication, which is set for June 2013.   What is familial breast cancer? Breast...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer QA articles Source Type: news