June 25, 2013

expert reaction to NICE guidance on preventative breast cancer drugs for ‘at-risk’ women

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said the NHS should now give tamoxifen or raloxifene as preventative drugs to women with a family history of breast cancer.

Professor Nazneen Rahman, Head of Genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and of the Cancer Genetics Clinical Unit at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“The NICE guidance increases the number of people who will be eligible for BRCA gene testing, moving the UK in line with Europe and the US. This is an important and welcome change. NICE also found it would be cost-effective to further increase access to BRCA testing, but didn’t recommend doing so because of current limitations in NHS capacity. We, and others, are focusing on improving capacity within the NHS to offer BRCA testing so that many more people can benefit from gene testing in the near future.”

NICE clinical guideline entitled ‘Familial breast cancer – Classification and care of people at risk of familial breast cancer and management of breast cancer and related risks in people with a family history of breast cancer’.