Anastrozole: Repurposed drug could prevent thousands of breast cancer cases

Hundreds of thousands of women in England deemed at increased risk of breast cancer could soon be offered anastrozole, after the medicines regulator approved the drug for prevention.

Anastrozole is authorised for treating breast cancer in postmenopausal women and has been used off label in some cases for prevention, but it has now received official approval for prevention in postmenopausal women at moderate or high risk of developing the disease. In trials anastrozole has been shown to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in this …