Cancer help for up to 500 Dorset women a year after drug trials (From Thisisdorset)

Cancer help for up to 500 Dorset women a year after drug trials

7:00am Saturday 20th December 2008

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FIVE hundred Dorset women a year could benefit from a new drug that reduces the risk of breast cancer coming back in older women who have been treated for the disease.

The Royal Bournemouth and Poole Hospitals were among only five centres in the UK to take part in the international trial comparing Femara, or letrozole, with tamoxifen.

Around eight out of 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer have been through the menopause. After surgery and any follow-up treatment, most are put on tamoxifen for five years to help prevent a recurrence of the hormone-sensitive disease.

But results of the trial, announced at a conference in Texas last week, show that letrozole cut women’s risk of dying of breast cancer by 13 per cent compared with tamoxifen.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital breast surgeon Tony Skene said: “It’s quite exciting. It’s probably of benefit for 80 per cent of women who will develop a breast cancer, unlike drugs such as Herceptin, which are suitable for a small minority.”

NHS Bournemouth and Poole agreed to make the drug available to local women earlier this year. It costs £85 a month compared to around £5 a month for tamoxifen, but has the potential to save the NHS money in the long term.

Mr Skene stressed: “Ladies on tamoxifen should know they are on a good drug. What the results are saying is that the 500 ladies who will be newly diagnosed in 2009 can be reassured they will be considered for drugs that weren’t available over the last few years.”

One of the women who took part in the trial at the Royal Bournemouth was Beryl Parker, 70, who had breast cancer surgery after a mammogram in 1999.

She has since raised £25,000 for the unit, some of it through producing her own nude calendar.

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