Research: Avastin Shows Mild Promise in the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
Shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
rejected approval of the drug Avastin to treat breast cancer, two newly
published studies showed some benefits of Avastin in treating ovarian cancer. Avastin
is FDA-approved to treat some colorectal, lung, brain, and kidney cancers.
Patients with advanced ovarian cancer typically undergo
surgery and chemotherapy. However, in the first of two studies on Avastin
published in the New England Journal of
Medicine, researchers found that advanced ovarian cancer patients who
received Avastin with chemotherapy followed by Avastin for up to an additional
10 months, slowed the progression of their cancer by about four months compared
to those patients who received chemotherapy with a placebo and then continued
with a placebo. According to
Fox
Chase
Cancer
Center, the net effect
was a 28% reduction in the risk of disease of ovarian cancer progression over
time. Patients who received Avastin only with chemotherapy, but not afterward,
had a median progression-free survival of 11.2 months.
“This approach can be looked upon as a third major component
of treatment for ovarian cancer and related malignancies,” says Robert A. Burger,
MD, lead investigator of the study and director of the Women's Cancer Center at
Fox Chase Cancer Center, in the Center’s news release.
The second study on Avastin found slowed cancer progression
by one to two months in patients with advanced ovarian cancer who received the
drug with chemotherapy, compared to those who received chemotherapy alone.
Roche's Genentech unit, maker of the Avastin, recently
received approval from European regulators to use Avasin in treating advanced
ovarian cancer in Europe but Genentech does not believe that the research would
lead to FDA approval in the
United
States.
In December 2010, the
FDA decided to remove the breast cancer indication from the Avastin label,
citing that the drug has not be shown to be safe or effective in breast cancer
patients. Avatin has been on the market for 2 years to treat breast cancer, but
an advisory panel to the FDA recommended last July that the drug Avastin no
longer be administered to breast cancer patients along with chemotherapy.
Researchers on the panel found no meaningful benefit for patients who took
Avastin and believed the toxicity of the drug outweigh positive effects.
The National Cancer
Institute estimates that nearly 22,000 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer
in 2011, and more than 15,000 died of the disease.
Resources and References
-
The
December 28, 2011
Fox
Chase
Cancer
Center news release,
“Targeted Therapy Extends Progression-Free Survival of Patients with
Advanced Ovarian Cancer,” was posted on the Center’s web site, http://www.fccc.edu/
-
The
studies, “A Phase 3 Trial of Bevacizumab in Ovarian Cancer” and “Incorporation
of Bevacizumab in the Primary Treatment of Ovarian Cancer,” were published
in the December 29, 2011 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, http://www.nejm.org/
-
To
learn more about ovarian cancer, please visit http://www.imaginis.com/ovarian-cancer/ovarian-cancer-resource-center
