In England, the NHS will provide women with a medicine that reduces the risk of breast cancer recurrence.

Thousands more women with breast cancer in England will benefit from a new NHS-funded drug that lessens the likelihood of the disease returning.

In England, the NHS will provide women with a medicine that reduces the risk of breast cancer recurrence.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved abemaciclib, a drug that reduces the risk of breast cancer returning following surgery to remove a tumour.

In trials, individuals who received the medicine in combination with hormone therapy had a 30 percent higher likelihood of their cancer not returning after surgery than those who had hormone therapy alone.

"It's excellent that thousands more women with this type of initial breast cancer will now have an extra treatment option accessible on the NHS to help further reduce the likelihood of the illness returning," said Delyth Morgan, CEO of Breast Cancer Now.

"For many women and their loved ones, the dread of breast cancer returning or spreading to other regions of their bodies and becoming incurable causes significant anxiety.

"New effective medicines like abemaciclib, which can help more women lower their risk of the disease returning, are really welcome, and this is a significant step forward in the medication alternatives accessible to this group of patients."

The twice-daily pill is for women who have had surgery and have hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence. Initially, about 4,000 women will profit, according to Nice.

The draught suggestion came less than a month after abemaciclib acquired its licence, according to Helen Knight, interim head of medicines review at Nice.

"The fact that we were able to generate draught recommendations so fast demonstrates the effectiveness of our goal of assisting patients in receiving clinically and cost-effective treatments as soon as feasible," Knight added. "There have been no targeted treatments for this form of breast cancer until now."

"Having the ability to have a focused treatment early after surgery will boost the potential of treating the disease and lower the likelihood of acquiring incurable advanced disease," says the researcher.

Abemaciclib works by identifying and blocking proteins that allow cancer cells to divide and thrive. A packet of 56 150mg tablets ordinarily costs £2,950, but the manufacturer, Eli Lilly, has agreed to a lower price for NHS England.

Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England's cancer director, stated, "Thanks in part to this latest deal secured by NHS England, NHS patients will be able to receive another novel targeted treatment for a common and aggressive form of breast cancer."

"When combined with hormone therapy, abemaciclib provides a new, doubly targeted treatment option, helping to boost the odds of conquering cancer for good while also achieving the NHS's long-term commitment to provide improved cancer care."

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