Patients suffering from breast cancer now have a reason to smile. A new drug produced in Japan is now all set to hit the stores in the UK. It is made by Japanese drug maker Eisai and it is a marine-based drug.

The European drug regulators passed this drug for the aid of patients suffering from the advanced stages of breast cancer. The drug is suitable for those patients who have had at least two chemotherapies but still had no effect on the cancer.

The UK has a high rate of breast cancer patients and as many as 16% deaths in the country occur due to it. As many as 30% of the women who are previously diagnosed with early stage cancer later tend to develop its advanced stages, which becomes somewhat incurable.

With the new drug in the market, there is a way for many new possibilities. The drug-maker, Eisai, is of the view that this is the first single agent treatment that has shown positive results in the patients suffering from the advanced stages of the disease.

According to Consultant Medical Oncologist Andrew Wardley Halaven, the new drug "addresses an urgent need for new treatment options for women with advanced breast cancer who have previously received multiple treatments”.