Scottish Women Get Breast Drug
May 9th 2006
Women in Scotland were given the right to treatment with the latest breast cancer drug yesterday - while in Britain one man managed to get approval for treatment. 
The Scottish Medicines Consortium gave approval for letrozole - marketed as Femara - to be used in the treatment of early breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
The SMC backing for the drug followed its licensing by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in December.
In England, the National Institute for Healthcare Excellence (NICE) is still considering the drug.
Emma Pennery, a nurse consultant with the charity Breast Cancer Care, said: "Aromatase inhibitors, such as Femara, are beneficial in all types of hormone receptor-positive, postmenopausal breast cancer, which represent around 80 per cent of all breast cancers.
"With new data increasingly showing these treatments to be more effective than tamoxifen, we hope to see a NICE appraisal that supports the use of aromatase inhibitors in the treatment of early breast cancer and equal access to the best treatment options for all breast cancer patients throughout the country."
Mr Mike Dixon, a consultant at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, said: "The availability of Femara for use in the adjuvant setting provides doctors and patients with another very effective and well-tolerated treatment for postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive early breast cancer."
Meanwhile in Kent, a man of 37, who developed breast cancer, won approval from his local primary care trust for treatment with herceptin.
Stuart Weaver’s health insurance company had declined to pay for the drug.
A spokesman for the trust said: "Any decisions are based on the patient’s individual clinical needs, the advice of the consultants or other health specialists and the clinical evidence available about the treatment."
Subscribe or spread the word:
Related Information
