Breast Cancer Drug Often Given For Fertility

Three in 10 women take the common breast cancer drug Femara to treat infertility, even though it could increase risks to the baby, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

They said the drug is often prescribed “off-label” to treat infertility, even though it is classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as posing a pregnancy risk.

And a study of health claims suggests policies by health insurers to only pay for the drug’s approved uses could improve both the care and safety of the women who take it.

Novartis’s Femara or letrozole is approved to treat post-menopausal women who have hormone-receptor positive breast cancers, in which a hormone is driving the cancer…