A simple new treatment for heart disease victims costing £1 a day was described by doctors yesterday as the biggest breakthrough in fighting Britain's number one killer for 20 years.
They estimated that the new therapy, involving the humble aspirin, could save the lives of 4,000 Britons a year and prevent 6,000 more suffering further heart attacks or strokes.
Worldwide trials of the combination therapy, which studied 2,000 patients from 28 countries, including 750 patients at 25 centres in Britain, have suggested that the chances of high-risk patients surviving for a year after hospital treatment might be improved by as much as 20%.
Leaders of the British part of the study said thousands of patients could enjoy a far better quality of life from a treatment that could drastically reduce the £10bn a year cost of heart disease to the UK economy.
Some results from the research suggest even more dramatic improvements in life chances - around 30% for patients undergoing heart bypass operations or angioplasty, in which their arteries are widened.
The treatment involves aspirin, long used to help thin the blood and reduce the chances of thrombosis in at-risk patients, alongside a drug called clopidogrel, already licensed as an alternative to cut the risk of blood clots.
The drug, marketed as the brand name Plavix, has previously been found to have a similar effect to aspirin when used on its own, but the combination of a tablet of each a day appears to hold the secret, offering an extra 20% success rate.
Dr Marcus Flather, a cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, said: "These results are probably the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of coronary heart disease... since the introduction of aspirin in the 1980s."
British researchers want an extension of the drug licence for clopidogrel to cover its use in tandem with aspirin to widen its acceptability, but say doctors should prescribe the dual treatment immediately, as they are entitled to, using their own professional judgement.
Dr Flather said: "We would say the evidence is so overwhelming - and this is a very high-risk patient group - that we should be cracking on straight away. We would advise people to go ahead and use the treatment based on these results. It is simple, safe and available already."
Heart disease kills about 250,000 Britons, about 40% of all deaths each year, many of whom never reach hospital. The new treatment would benefit many of the 120,000 heart attack victims who make it to hospital. Of these up to 50,000 may die or suffer another acute medical "event" within the year. It is these patients who, the researchers say, will benefit.
Aspirin is already known to play a major part in improving the life chances of heart attack victims but the overall death toll is still rising because the population is getting older and lifestyles are more sedentary.
Many victims also suffer the long-term consequences of smoking and alcohol. Coronary experts say that death tolls will drop markedly only when people adopt healthier habits.
The study, whose results are reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet medical journal, showed that the new combination increased the risks of internal bleeding, but this did not lead to more deaths, surgical interventions or strokes than under other treatments.
