15/01/2013

Historic Breast Cancer Consultation Launched

Women in England and Wales with a strong family history of breast cancer could be offered medication in an effort to prevent the disease.

A consultation has been launched by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence on whether tamoxifen could be given for up to five years.

If approved the draft guidelines would be the first of their kind in the UK.

NICE says not enough is being done to help healthy but high-risk women, who include women with a sister and a mother or aunt diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50.

Taking tamoxifen for five years could cut their own risk of the disease.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with about 50,000 women and 400 men diagnosed with the condition each year.

(H)


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