Roche presents positive new Avastin clinical data

Roche has published data from new clinical studies that demonstrate the benefits offered by Avastin to various cancer patients.

The first of these studies, a phase III trial called Aurelia, showed that adding Avastin to chemotherapy can cut the risk of progression in difficult-to-treat recurrent ovarian cancer by half.

This is an important development for this patient group, given that patients who have proven resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy currently have limited options available to them.

Meanwhile, in the phase III study known as ML18147, Avastin plus chemotherapy was shown to deliver survival benefits to metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

It was the first phase III study to appraise continued Avastin use through different lines of therapy.

Dr Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head of global product development at Roche, said: "Our study design was based on previous research showing that sustained VEGF inhibition achieved and maintained anti-tumour activity."