Avastin Drug Trials Stopped
A new and promising breast cancer drug called Avastin was being clinically trialed in patients with breast cancer, when the trials were recently stopped due to potential signs of heart failure in six of the 200 patients who were enrolled in the trials started to show signs of possible heart failure. The drug is actually already approved as part of therapy for various other kinds of cancer, and was undergoing trials to see if it could help treat and cure breast cancer. It’s a shame it was found to have potentially serious side effects, as we can use all the effective drugs in our corner as we can get when it comes to invasive breast cancer.
The studies that were being done with the 200 patients who were enrolled voluntarily were how the Avastin drug might work in combination with the most common type of treatment for most cancers (and in my opinion the most deadly), chemotherapy. The drugmaker Roche, who I’m sure is disappointed since Avastin is their biggest seller currently, said they halted the trials when patients who were in the early stages of breast cancer began to exhibit symptoms of heart failure, which included shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling in certain tell tale parts of the body which are traditionally indicative of heart failure.
Since the study was halted after the agreement that it would be halted if six in the first 200 exhibited any types of signs of heart failure, since this was a study to help determine it’s safety for the heart, five of the six patients have totally returned to normal heart function, while it is unclear whether the last person has returned to normal. It is not clear whether the combination with chemotherapy had anything to do with the side effects that occurred that may have affected heart function, but to me it wouldn’t be surprising since chemotherapy is toxic to so many different organs in the human body.
This is obviously a disappointment that we don’t have another viable and somewhat safe alternative for treating breast cancer, but I’m sure there will be more trials that the medical community comes up with in the future, it’s just a matter of how safe and when they come up with them. For now, it looks like Avastin may not be an option offered for the treatment of breast cancer, at least not in the dosage and specifics that were administered for this trial.
