Anastrozole may cut breast cancer risk

Conclusion Overall, the study provides solid and believable evidence that anastrozole can reduce the number of new cases of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at higher than average risk of developing breast cancer. The study has many strengths, including its large sample size and robust study design. However, the study also has limitations to note. The results only apply to a specific group of postmenopausal women at a higher than average risk of developing breast cancer. "Higher risk" was defined using a number of very specific criteria. This means the results are not applicable to other groups of postmenopausal women. Around half of women in both the placebo and anastrozole groups had dropped out after five years, in part because of side effects. This highlights that although the side effects may not have been drug related, longer term treatment compliance may be an issue. Anastrozole was not tested against existing drugs already used to prevent cancer in higher risk women, only against a placebo treatment. This tells us that anastrozole is better than giving no drug, but doesn't really tell us if it is better or worse than the other drugs that are currently available. No studies have looked at this directly, but it is possible to make some indirect comparisons, although these are prone to error. Anastrozole is approved by the medicines regulator to treat specific types of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, but it is not yet approved for the prevent...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Medication Source Type: news