HWN Suggests

Cheap, effective treatments for cancer already exist, so why don’t you know about them?

The United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency recently approved anastrozole as a treatment for preventing breast cancer in postmenopausal women at medium or high risk of being diagnosed with the disease. Now doctors in the UK can offer this effective preventive option to thousands of women. But as STAT reported, here in the United States, few women may be aware of its availability, much less that it’s a cheap generic drug already FDA approved and in use for treating breast cancer.

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Featured

 Anastrozole: the daily breast cancer pill tipped to save thousands of lives

Existing treatment approved for preventative use under 'pioneering' NHS drug repurposing scheme.

 Drug that can halve breast cancer risk offered to 289,000 women in England

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 displays “remarkable” potential to reduce the number of people who go on to develop the disease, the head of the NHS said last night.

 The U.K. just cleared a drug to prevent breast cancer. U.S. women may not know it’s already an option

The news that the U.K. has approved a preventive drug for post-menopausal women at risk of developing breast cancer wasn’t a shock to breast medical oncologist Abenaa Brewster. But the fact that a patient in her breast cancer prevention clinic hadn’t ever heard of such a possibility before was. “I thought to myself, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe a woman in America is being educated about preventive therapy from European use,’ because for the last 25 years in America, we have had two drugs that are FDA approved to be used for women who are at high risk of developing breast cancer to prevent breast cancer,” said Brewster, a professor of clinical cancer prevention at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Articles of Interest

10 Years of Arimidex Reduces Recurrence Risk, But Doesn’t Improve Overall Survival

“Continuing adjuvant anastrozole for an additional five years after five years of initial treatment with anastrozole or tamoxifen followed by anastrozole was well tolerated and improved [disease-free survival],” the researchers concluded. “Although no difference in overall survival was observed as in other trials, extended anastrozole therapy could be one treatment choice in post-menopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.”

Anastrozole Versus Tamoxifen as First-Line Therapy for Advanced Breast Cancer...

Anastrozole satisfied the predefined criteria for equivalence to tamoxifen. Together with the lower observed incidence of thromboembolic events and vaginal bleeding, these findings indicate that anastrozole should be considered as first-line therapy for postmenopausal women with ABC.

Anastrozole: Thousands to be offered drug to prevent breast cancer in England

Anastrozole, used for many years to treat the disease, has now been licensed as a preventative option. Recent trials show the drug can reduce the incidence of breast cancer by almost 50% in post-menopausal women at moderate or high risk of the disease. Charities said it was "a major step forward" for women with a significant family history of the cancer.

Continuous Anastrozole May Improve Survival in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer

Extending treatment with adjuvant anastrozole (Arimidex) for an additional 5 years among disease-free patients with postmenopausal hormone receptor (HR)–positive breast cancer tolerably improved some survival outcomes, according to findings from the phase 3 AERAS study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Is Anastrozole the New Wonder Drug? - with Dr Tasha

In this video, I am going to talk about the drug Anastrozole which in this month has been licensed to be used as a preventative drug to prevent breast cancer. But hold on! That name kind of sounds similar. Well its right! While Anastrozole has been used for over 20 years in the treatment of breast cancer. It is usually prescribed to postmenopausal women who have been diagnosed with a hormone sensitive breast cancer.

Repurposed breast cancer drug could cut future cases by almost half

Scientists have found that as well as treating breast cancer, anastrozole – a hormone therapy – can also prevent cases. And the protective effect lasts for years after a woman has stopped taking the drug, officials said.

Side effects of anastrozole

I have taken anastrozole for seven months with unfortunately multiple side effects. Some I can take in stride, but others are severe. The two that bother me most led me to seek consultations with other doctors. I have not seen these side effects mentioned except as rare ones in couple studies in JAMA, NIH, etc. One is multiple severe overheating with dizziness, fainting and rapid heart rates, regardless of the activity. My cardiologist did an extensive study, with various tests ruling out everything, but the fact that I was dehydrated which was possibly contributing to rapid heart rates. Unfortunately, no amount of electrolytes or water mitigated the rapid heart rates. Before the breast cancer diagnosis, I exercised regularly and lifted weights. Less than 2 months into taking the anastrozole, I lost range of motion in my right arm with sharp pain running down my shoulder to my wrist and sometimes up to my neck. The doctor seemed to lean towards carpal tunnel syndrome.

Resources

Arimidex

ARIMIDEX 1 mg is a prescription hormonal treatment that helps fight breast cancer by lowering the amount of estrogen in the body. ARIMIDEX is a selective, non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor, which signifcantly lowers serum estradiol (estrogen) concentrations, without interfering with the formation of adrenal corticosteroids or aldosterone.

Cancer Research UK

Women with breast cancer usually only have anastrozole when they are post menopausal. Less often, some women who have not been through the menopause may also have anastrozole. In this instance, they have it in combination with other treatments that stop the ovaries working.

ChemoCare

ANASTROZOLE (an AS troe zole) treats breast cancer. It works by decreasing the amount of estrogen hormone your body makes, which slows or stops breast cancer cells from spreading or growing.