Jul 10
26
Breast Cancer Drug Avastin Failed to Extend Life
Well, this is certainly a bummer, as I remember reading very promising-sounding news about this drug when it was approved by the FDA for the treatment of breast cancer tumors a couple years back. Avastin, a Roche breast cancer drug that was thought to help extend the lives of advanced breast cancer patients, apparently has not proven itself in that capacity over the time it has been on the market.
It did not work to prevent the growth of the tumors further either, which of course goes hand in hand with also not helping to extend the patient’s life, obviously a huge disappointment for Doctors and their patients who were using this drug hoping that it would work for them.
The catch with the approval of Avastin though, which explains why it is now being re-reviewed after a few years on the market, was that it went through what is termed as an “accelerated approval” based on promising preliminary studies and results before it went through approval for commercial sale. The catch was that the FDA wanted to see proof that it helped shrink breast cancer tumors in the patients it was given to once approved, and also to see proof that it extended their lives.
They did not see this proof in the short time it was on market though when it was compared to the use of chemotherapy alone. The really sad and tragic part of all this is that the patients who were on Avastin as well as chemotherapy also had a diminished quality of life, suffering from side effects of fatigue, high blood pressure and abnormally high whit blood cell levels.
The FDA now has a choice to remove the drug from market, or to keep it on, pending review. I am not sure what they should do here. I guess they really need to compare the quality of life issues with the benefit that the individual patient shows, and that would be tough to do since every patient reacts differently to different drugs.
