Health: Did you know a new breast cancer drug can also prevent cancer?

Researchers say a pill called anastrozole can lower risk of breast cancer in women.

A recent released study shows that the pill, which is available generically, lowered the risk of breast cancer by 53 percent in women at high risk of the disease. That’s a little bit better than the other drugs now being used to prevent breast cancer, such as tamoxifen. And women taking anastrozole had fewer side-effects, the researchers told the San Antonio Breast Cancer symposium.

“The efficacy is clearly better and we think the side-effects are better than tamoxifen,” said Dr. Jack Cuzick of King’s College London, who led the study. “There had been lots of concern about aches and pains. Now we can say most of them have nothing to do with the drug.”

The findings, also published in the Lancet medical journal, add to the list of choices available to women considered at high risk of breast cancer. Tamoxifen was the first drug shown to not only treat breast cancer, but to prevent it in women at high risk. Since then two others have been added to the list. Anastrozole could be the fourth.

Source - NBC News