A NEW breast cancer drug that shuts off the supply of oestrogen could save thousands of lives in the UK, according to researchers.

Data from three international trials involving more than 4,000 women showed that switching from standard therapy to Arimidex after two years could reduce death rates by 29 per cent.

The drug is licensed for the after-surgery treatment of postmenopausal women with early invasive breast cancer.

However, it is still awaiting a green light from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which issues guidelines on new treatments in England and Wales.

Nice is not due to consider Arimidex until November next year. It has been approved for use in Scotland. Arimidex, the trade name for anastrozole, belongs to a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which stop the production of oestrogen.

Three quarters of postmenopausal women with breast cancer have a form of the disease that find it hard to survive without oestrogen.

Tamoxifen, which blocks the activity of oestrogen without preventing its production, is the standard treatment for hormone-sensitive breast cancers.

Earlier research showed that a five-year course of treatment, which involved switching from tamoxifen to Arimidex after two years, cut the chances of recurrence by 26 per cent.

This was over and above the 50 per cent reduction because of tamoxifen. The new metaanalysis study, pooling data from three similarly designed trials, provides the first definitive evidence of improved survival with Arimidex.

A total of 13,000 women die from breast cancer each year in the UK. Many of these deaths could be prevented by using Arimidex, the research suggests. Results are awaited of trials of a similar drug made by Pfizer, Aromasin.

The research was conducted by Dr Walter Jonat, from the University of Kiel in Germany.

Jeffrey Tobias, Professor of Cancer Medicine at University College London Hospitals, said: “Survival is the ultimate goal in the treatment of early breast cancer, and these results provide compelling evidence that anastrozole has the potential to save the lives of significantly more cancer patients who are postmenopausal and hormone-receptor positive."

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