Avastin boosts PFS 36% in HER2-negative patients

Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2009 meeting, in Orlando, Florida, show that Swiss drug major Roche's Avastin  (bevacizumab) plus commonly-used chemotherapies increases the chance of  the patient living without the disease worsening by up to 36% compared  to chemotherapies alone, in women receiving first-line therapy for  advanced HER2-negative breast cancer.

The Phase III RIBBON-1 study combined Avastin with chemotherapies,  including Xeloda (capecitabine), taxanes and anthracyclines and  measured progression-free survival. No new safety signals for  bevacizumab were observed in the study. There was an up to 36% increase  in the chance of the patient living without the disease getting worse,  and a significant increase in tumor shrinkage in all groups of patients  who received bevacizumab, with a response rate of up to 51.3%.

According to Roche, this is the third study to show that Avastin can be  combined with taxanes for the treatment of advanced breast cancer, and  the first to show the benefit of combining it with capecitabine or  anthracyclines in this group of patients.