Drug shows promise for childhood brain tumors

“This is the first time a Phase III trial has demonstrated that an anti-angiogenic agent improved progression-free survival in women with this very hard-to-treat-disease,” said Robert Burger of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, who led the research.

“Based on the results of this... trial, bevacizumab is an acceptable initial treatment option for patients with advanced ovarian, primary peritoneal and fallopian tube cancers,” said Burger.

Avastin is sold by US firm Genetech, part of Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche and has already been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in treating cancers including colon, breast, kidney, brain and lung.

Previous small-scale clinical studies involving Avastin had shown the drug's potential for ovarian cancer patients, but this trial involved an international pool of 1,873 women with newly-diagnosed advanced stage ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer.

The women had all undergone surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and were assigned to one of three groups.

The first received standard chemotherapy supplemented with a placebo and then received a placebo for follow-up medicine; the second received chemotherapy plus Avastin and a placebo follow-up drug; the third received chemotherapy plus Avastin and also took Avastin to follow-up.

Those in the final group had a median recurrence-free survival rate of 14.1 months, compared with the 10.3 month rate among those who received chemotherapy alone — a statistically significant difference.

The difference between the third group and those who only took Avastin during chemotherapy was judged statistically insignificant.

Ovarian cancer affects some 230,000 women each year, killing around 140,000. It is the eighth most deadly cancer among women.

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