Avastin filed for treatment of advanced breast cancer in US
Roche and Genentech have filed Avastin (bevacizumab) in the US for the first line treatment of women with advanced breast cancer. The therapeutic antibody is designed to inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a protein that plays an important role in tumour angiogenesis and maintenance of existing tumour vessels.
Roche and Genentech have filed Avastin (bevacizumab) in the US for the first line treatment of women with advanced breast cancer. The therapeutic antibody is designed to inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a protein that plays an important role in tumour angiogenesis and maintenance of existing tumour vessels.
This latest submission is based on the results of the E2100 Phase III trial which showed that, patients receiving Avastin plus paclitaxel had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of more than a year while patients receiving paclitaxel alone had a median PFS of approximately six months.
More than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year worldwide and 8-9% of women are expected to develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
The supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) has been submitted to the FDA for use of Avastin in combination with standard chemotherapy (taxanes) for the first-line treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer.
In the US, Avastin was approved in February 2004 for first-line treatment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer and was filed in April 2006 for the most common form of lung cancer. The first filing for Avastin in Japan has been submitted last month for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.
Avastin is designed to interfere with the blood supply to a tumour, a process that is thought to be critical to a tumour's growth and metastasis.