New drug 'increases breast cancer survival'
A lauded new drug which helps breast cancer sufferers to live longer has shown more promising results in the latest trials.
Avastin, which is created by pharmaceutical company Roche, may be able to prolong the lifespan of the 45,000 women who are diagnosed with the disease each year, the creators claim.
When used with conventional breast cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, the medication has a direct impact on prolonging lifespans, compared with chemotherapy alone, Roche has said.
According to the organisation, its phase three study has been as successful as previous trials, with the women taking part showing no adverse effects after receiving the drug.
Dr Hal Barron, executive vice president of Global Development and chief medical officer at Roche, said that the results of latest clinical study may give hope to breast cancer insurance customers.
"Advanced breast cancer is aggressive and nearly all women will need additional treatment when initial chemotherapy stops working," he explained.
The healthcare specialist pointed to the recent approval for the first-line treatment of advanced HER2-negative breast cancer under the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) accelerated approval programme.
This illustrates the potency of the medication in helping to prolong lifespans in people with cancer cover, he stated.
"We have learned for the first time that Avastin given in the second-line with standard chemotherapies helped women live longer without the disease worsening and look forward to discussing these new data with the FDA," Dr Barron commented.
As eight out of ten breast cancer cases are women over the age of 50, this study may be of particular relevance to this demographic, the specialist added.
Roche now plans to present the data from the studies to healthcare experts and explore the options of conducting further trials before the possibility of public distribution is explored.
By Stephen Tate
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