CANCER FIGHT BABY HOPE.

Byline: By EMILY COOK, Health Correspondent

YOUNG women with breast cancer could be given a drug that is just as effective as chemotherapy but which does not lead to infertility.

Tests on hormone therapy treatment LHRH agonists showed it had fewer side effects and gave women a greater chance of still having children.

Many chemotherapy treatments permanently stop the ovaries from producing eggs.

But scientists found the ovaries of women who took the drug returned to normal once treatment stopped. And the chance of the disease recurring was no higher than if they had chemotherapy alone.

Kate Law, head of clinical trials at Cancer Research UK, said: "Breast cancer is always a shocking diagnosis but particularly sad when treatment leaves women unable to have children. This is an encouraging finding."

Experts say the drugs, already approved for use in Britain, should be offered as an alternative for the two thirds of premenopausal patients with hormone sensitive breast cancer - about 5,500 patients.

Cancer Research UK's Prof Jack Cuzick, who published the study of 12,000 pre-menopausal women in the Lancet, said: "These results point to an important additional approach to treating breast cancer."

More than 42,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK, with 80 per cent of cases occurring in women over 50.

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CELLS: Breast cancer