Avastin delays progression of ovarian cancer
The drug, also known as bevacizumab, is also approved in Europe for previously untreated ovarian cancer and is under review for use in previously treated ovarian cancer.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year revoked its conditional approval of Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer because, although there was evidence that it slowed progression of the disease, there was no conclusive data showing that it extended the lives of breast cancer patients.
A Genentech spokeswoman said the company is waiting for final overall survival results from all of its ovarian cancer studies, expected by next year, and then plans to discuss its next steps with the FDA.
Dr. Gary Lyman, a Duke University researcher who was on the FDA advisory panel that recommended revoking Avastin’s approval for breast cancer, wrote in an email that he agreed with the company’s decision not to seek approval for ovarian cancer.
“The situation is very similar” to the results in breast cancer, and approval is unlikely unless a biological marker or test can show which patients might benefit, he wrote.
About 220,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year around the world, and it causes 140,000 deaths. In the U.S., ovarian cancer strikes 22,000 women and results in 15,000 deaths each year.
An estimated 230,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year. Most are not diagnosed before the cancer has spread, and up to 70 percent of them die within five years.
Who gets ovarian cancer?
All women are at risk for ovarian cancer, but older women are more likely to get the disease than younger women. About 90 percent of women who get ovarian cancer are older than 40, with the greatest number being age 55 or older.
In 2005,* 19,842 women were told that they had ovarian cancer, making it the second most common gynecologic cancer. †
Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer, but it accounts for only about 3 percent of all cancers in women.
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* The most recent year for which statistics are currently available.
† U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. United States Cancer
Statistics: 1999–2005 Incidence and Mortality Web-based
Report. Atlanta (GA): Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Cancer
Institute; 2009.
“Ultimately, almost all the patients with ovarian cancer will develop chemotherapy resistance,” Pujade-Lauraine said.
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By Deena Beasley
CHICAGO