More Jamaican women with breast cancer now have affordable access to Arimidex, the drug that trials have recently shown to dramatically reduce the recurrence of breast cancer in women.

The Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination (ATAC) trial is one of the world's largest and longest-running clinical studies in post-menopausal women with early breast cancer.

"The cost of the drug has been significantly reduced through the National Health Fund. The price of Arimidex from the Drug Serv Pharmacies before the NHF subsidy is applied is $14,251; after the subsidy, it goes for $1,227.70," oncologist and haematologist, Dr Veronica Taylor was quoted as saying in a press release from PRO Communications.

"This will definitely benefit our patients, some of whom have had to opt out of using the drug because of the cost factor."

Now on list

Established in April 2003, Jamaica's National Health Fund (NHF) provides financial support to the national health care system, improving its effectiveness and the health of the Jamaican population.

It provides individual benefits to persons to purchase specific prescription drugs used in the treatment and management of designated chronic illnesses.

Arimidex is now on this list, making it more widely available to Jamaicans.

The drug, Arimidex, an aromatase inhibitor (AI), is also a hormonal agent, but it acts to shut down the production of oestrogen in post-menopausal women.

Following its introduction in 1995, Arimidex was shown to be more effective and to have a lower risk of certain side effects compared with Tamoxifen in the treatment of post-menopausal women with hormone-sensitive advanced breast cancer (disease which has spread beyond the breast to other organs in the body).

Preventing recurrence

"We are very pleased with the positive effects that Arimidex has had on our patients as it improves their quality of life in a world where the lives of thousands of women are being impacted by this disease, breast cancer," Dr Taylor was further quoted as saying in the press release.

Preventing recurrence is a major priority in breast cancer management, she said.

According to information from AstraZeneca, manufacturers of the treatment, a recent global survey showed that over 70 per cent of physicians believe that telling a patient her breast cancer has come back is worse than giving a diagnosis of early breast cancer.

The 100-month analysis of ATAC was presented at the December 2007 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

The findings they say, reinforce the significant superiority of Arimidex over Tamoxifen at reducing the risk of breast cancer returning (also known as 'recurrence') and at increasing disease-free survival in post-menopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early disease.

The new data also showed that approximately four years after treatment completion, the absolute reduction in the risk of all forms of disease recurrence continues to increase with Arimidex compared with Tamoxifen.

Professor John Forbes of the Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Australia, who presented the data at SABCS, commented: "ATAC is a ground-breaking study - it has led to a significant change in treatment strategies in breast cancer with Arimidex now replacing Tamoxifen as the standard of care in many countries.

Protective effect

"In countries where this is not so, these new data will seriously challenge the status quo, as they show us that the protective effect of Arimidex is present well beyond completion of treatment, providing an indisputable reason for starting treatment with Arimidex to give women the best chance of staying cancer-free."