Taking key drugs for longer could benefit breast cancer patients

Women with the most common type of breast cancer could benefit from staying on aromatase inhibitors for a decade, a new study suggests. The study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Chicago, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that women who took aromatase inhibitors for 10 years rather than five were a third less likely to have their cancer return, or develop cancer in their other breast. Aromatase inhibitors work by preventing the body making the hormone oestrogen. They include drugs like letrozole, anastrozole and exemestane, and are already proven to prevent early-stage hormone-receptor positive