- Awareness Event at the Vietnam Laos Cambodia Community Centre
- Cancerkin Christmas Opening Hours
- Study shows that taking anastrozole daily could significantly reduce the likelihood of developing breast cancer
Awareness Event at the Vietnam Laos Cambodia Community Centre
Last week, Anisah visited the Vietnam Laos Cambodia Community Centre in Hackney to give a talk on the importance of being breast aware.
She spoke to a group of 28 men and women, all of whom were very receptive, with lots of questions and laughter, and a real interest in the breast awareness message. The Centre kindly provided a translator for us to ensure that everyone who attended could fully understand our message, and the importance of being breast aware.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and particularly Jenny who not only invited us to talk but also translated for us.
If you know of a community or religious group that would benefit from a breast awareness talk, please contact Anisah on 020 7830 2310 or eastldn@cancerkin.org.uk.
Cancerkin Christmas Opening Hours
The Cancerkin Centre will be closed from Monday 23 December 2013 until Friday 3 January 2014 (inclusive). We will be back in full swing for the New Year from Monday 6 January 2014!
Study shows that taking anastrozole daily could significantly reduce the likelihood of developing breast cancer
Research published in the Lancet has found that a drug, anastrozole, can halve the likelihood of women at high risk of breast cancer from developing the disease.
Scientists based at Queen Mary University of London followed 3,864 postmenopausal women who, based on family history, were at high risk of developing breast cancer. Half of these women were given 1mg of anastrozole a day while the rest received a placebo. In the five years of the study, only 40 of the women in the anastrozole group developed breast cancer, compared to 84 women who were given no treatment. They concluded that women who took anastrozole for five years were 53% less likely to develop breast cancer.
Anastrozole works by stopping the production of the hormone oestrogen, which is known to fuel the growth of most breast cancers, and is already used to treat postmenopausal women with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Anastrozole is cheap, as the patent has run out on the drug, with a five-year course of treatment costing £137. However, as anastrozole cannot prevent the ovaries from producing oestrogen it is only effective on woman after the menopause.
Earlier this year the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended that tamoxifen and raloxifene should be offered to women at high risk of breast cancer over the age of 35. These drugs also work by blocking oestrogen activity. However, the side effects of these drugs do include increased the risk of womb cancer and deep vein thrombosis alongside aches, pains and hot flushes. This study found, however, that the woman who took anastrozole had virtually no side effects, on top of being more effective and cheaper.
Professor Jack Cuzick, the lead researcher, said: “We now know anastrozole should be the drug of choice when it comes to reducing the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with a family history or other risk factors for the disease. This class of drugs is more effective than previous drugs such as tamoxifen and crucially, it has fewer side-effects.”
For more information, please see BBC Online, the Guardian or Cancer Research UK.