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

The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence has launched a consultation on whether tamoxifen could be given for up to five years.

If approved later this year, the draft guidelines would be the first of their kind in the UK.

Based on research findings, experts estimate that for every 1,000 women given tamoxifen, there would be 20 fewer breast cancers.

But this would have to be balanced against the risks associated with taking the drug, such as blood clots.

There's a major kerfuffle going on at the mo in the medical community about clinical trials and how they are reported. Right now, I'd be very wary of any 'wonder drug' that will also stands to make a drug company a buttload of money. Imagine how much this is going to cost - giving thousands of women a costly new preventative treatment to prevent 20 per 1000 getting breast cancer, which these days is often curable with no lasting ill effects anyway if it's caught early.

I can't imagine this makes better sense than a highly proactive screening program for the women involved. The equipment is already there and mostly paid for and screening no side effects. As oppose to this drug, which sounds rather expensive and the side effects are possibly worse than what it's preventing...

Jon

They certainly wouldn't be suggesting it unless it was somehow going to save money in the long run.

Aren't some of the women unlikely to benefit from some of these treatments?

Technically, the only ones to benefit are the ones that using the drug stopped from getting cancer. All the rest - the ones who were never going to get cancer regardless (roughly 2/3 of any sample) and the ones who still get it anyway - get no benefit.

Jon

I can't imagine this makes better sense than a highly proactive screening program for the women involved. The equipment is already there and mostly paid for and screening no side effects. As oppose to this drug, which sounds rather expensive and the side effects are possibly worse than what it's preventing...

Better to be over sensitive than under though?

It leads to a very high number of women having chemo and radio when they were never going to be ill, and people can die of those treatments so I don't know if it's that good.

The cloaked one said investigations rather than treatments. If anything is found there is usually a biopsy where they take a sample. I'd rather be checked out to know I'm ok than to have it missed during a mammogram and die.