ALMOST 300,000 women at high risk of breast cancer are to be offered a 4p pill on the NHS that could halve the danger.
Once-a-day tumour drug Anastrozole is to be repurposed as a preventative after research showed it slashed the threat by 49 per cent.
GettyAnastrozole has been used as a treatment for years and will now be doled out to prevent tumours[/caption]
The NHS in England will offer it to 289,000 post-menopausal women with inherited gene mutations that raise their risk — and estimates it will stop a tumour in one in 18 who take it for five years.
Doctors have been allowed to prescribe Anastrozole, also known as Arimidex, to prevent cancer since 2017 but it was never officially designated for this purpose, so was uncommon.
A new licence from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency means it will now become standard care.
The hormone therapy reduces levels of oestrogen that some tumours feed off.
NHS England chief exec Amanda Pritchard said: “This is the first drug to be repurposed through a world-leading new programme to help us realise the full potential of existing medicines to save and improve lives.”
Baroness Delyth Morgan, of charity Breast Cancer Now, called the roll-out a “major step forward”.