The headline story across BBC UK about the drug Anastrozole makes no reference to the other three nations.

Anastrozole has been used in Scotland since 2005:

Anastrozole (Arimidex) is accepted for restricted use within NHS Scotland in the adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early invasive breast cancer.

https://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/medicines-advice/anastrozole-arimidex-fullsubmission-19805/?UNLID=26676429320231179941

I’m not a medic but I think this means the drug is not being used in Scotland in the same preventative way and perhaps for good medical reasons – it reduces oestregen and so increases the risk of bone damage.

Without seeming too cynical I hope, is this NHS England initiative more a response to other failures.

In June BBC Health reported:

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, cancer treatment should start within 62 days of an urgent referral by a GP.

But only 61% of patients in England are currently starting treatment in that time – against a target of 85% – and in Northern Ireland, just 37%.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65882229

See anything missing in that second paragraph?

This:

The BBC then were careful to include NHS England’s improvement in March 2023, to 64% (61% by June) starting treatment within the target 64 days, from only 54.4% in December 2022, but have then compared that with the NHS Scotland figure for December 2022.

The correct, fair comparison would be 72% with 54.4%, a 16.6% gap and thus 30.5% better than the 54.4% figure.

Also, searching for details of the use of Anastrozole in Scotland, I found this comment from 18 years ago:

England lags behind Scotland in assessing cancer drug. The Scottish Medicines Consortium, which fulfils the role of NICE in Scotland, appears able to assess drugs more quickly than its English counterpart. It has given its decision on the breast cancer drug anastrozole (Arimidex), for example, while NICE’s appraisal of the drug for England and Wales is not due out until November next year.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1226272/

Perhaps readers will have sharper insights into the science here, but do I smell more media sensitivity than science in the NHS England news?