A NEW "smart" pill for advanced breast and bowel cancer which has fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy will soon be made available to NHS patients.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), which vets new medicines, has issued guidance recommending that patients should be offered the drug capecitabine.

In its advice, which all health authorities are expected to adopt, Nice stipulates that the decision to use the drug should be made jointly by patient and doctor.

Capecitabine, known by the brand name Xeloda, is designed to target cancer cells while avoiding healthy tissue.

Traditional chemotherapy drugs tend to cause a lot of colon damage by hitting healthy cells as well as tumours.

This results in the well-known side effects of anti-cancer drugs, such as nausea and hair loss.

Far fewer side effects have been reported by patients using capecitabine, the most common being tingling sensations in the hands and feet.

For advanced breast cancer, Nice has recommended capecitabine for use as both a single agent treatment and in combination with another drug, docetaxel (Taxotere).

These options should be considered when other treatments have failed or are unsuitable, says the guidance.

The combination treatment is the first to demonstrate better rates of tumour response and overall survival than docetaxel alone.

Capecitabine is recommended as a first-line treatment for advanced colon cancer, alongside other drugs.

Professor Chris Twelves, from the Tom Connors Cancer Research Centre at the University of Bradford, said: "As a clinician treating people with advanced cancer, it is clear that Xeloda can make a real difference to patients with breast and bowel cancer.

"For them, Xeloda is at least as effective and more convenient than current treatments."

He said because it was a pill, capecitabine could be taken at home, meaning fewer hospital visits for patients and less pressure on hospital units.

Nice pointed out that, although the drug would not be cheaper to administer than other therapies, it would save the NHS money in the long run by reducing the work load of specialist staff.