Data boost for Avastin
pharmafile | June 5, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |
A new study has confirmed that Roche's Avastin significantly extends time without disease progression for women with metastatic breast cancer.
Data from the pivotal phase III AVADO study showed that when used with chemotherapy treatment docetaxel, Avastin significantly improves progression-free survival for patients with metastatic breast cancer – that is, the amount of time they live without their disease getting worse – when compared with docetaxel alone.
Indeed, patients' chances of being alive without disease progression increased up to 64% while almost two-thirds of patients experienced major shrinkage of their tumour.
But the company stressed that the study did not indicate overall increased survival, as this data is not expected until next year.
"This is the second large phase III study to confirm that Avastin extends the time in which patients live without disease progression in combination with a widely used chemotherapy agent," said AVADO principal investigator Dr David Miles, medical oncologist at the UK's Mount Vernon Hospital. "Importantly, this study has confirmed that Avastin can be used with taxane-based chemotherapy to provide a meaningful benefit for patients with metastatic breast cancer."
But the company stressed that overall survival data is not expected until next year.
Roche is investigating the use of Avastin in over 20 tumour types with around 40,000 patients worldwide. Both AVADO and E2100 support the use of a 5mg/kg per week dose.
"The positive results of the AVADO study are encouraging news for patients suffering from metastatic breast cancer and confirm Avastin's benefits as a treatment against this devastating disease," said William Burns, chief executive of Roche's pharma division. "With our Avastin development programme – the biggest trial programme in oncology ever – we will continue to develop the best possible treatment approaches to increase survival and improve quality of life of cancer patients."
Avastin is approved in Europe and the US for breast, lung and colorectal cancer. The brand was approved as a metastatic breast cancer treatment in Europe in March 2007 and is used for lung and colon cancer in the US. Last year the drug had sales of $2.3 billion in the US.
