Doctors researching breast cancer have reported “exciting” results with a drug designed to stop the disease recurring. The team at Manchester’s Christie Hospital showed femara (letrozole) reduces the likelihood of a woman dying by 39%. Currently women with breast cancer undergo standard tamoxifen treatment, which must stop after five years, when the disease is likely to recur. The trial showed femara reduced the chance of the cancer recurring by 42%. Researchers have shown that currently more than a third of sufferers will experience a relapse after surgery, with half of those relapses happening after the five years of standard tamoxifen treatment.
