Research by Oxford scientists published today reveals chemotherapy can be effective in the early stages of breast cancer - before the disease has spread.

The news comes after the largest random study of chemotherapy for cancer led by a team based at Oxford University.

It has already been proved chemotherapy helps people live longer when the cancer has spread from the breast into other parts of the body.

But the new research shows the same is true if patients are given the treatment before the spread, while the cancer is still localised.

The University's Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Clinical Trial Service Unit followed 18,000 women with breast cancer looking at the benefits of chemotherapy - where a cocktail of drugs is used to kill the cancer cells.

Prof Rory Collins from Oxford University said: "We already know that chemotherapy improves the chances of survival for a young woman with breast cancer which has spread to the local lymph glands.

"Now we know that this treatment is beneficial even if the cancer appears to be confined to the breast."

The study found that for every 100 women aged under 50 whose cancer had spread, chemotherapy would prevent about 11 dying within the next ten years. Younger women with no evidence of disease spread also benefited from chemotherapy.

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