Roche’s Avastin to receive continued EU support for breast cancer

Roche's drug Avastin is to receive the continued backing of EU regulators as a beneficial treatment option for metastatic breast cancer sufferers.

The European Commission has stated that the combination of Avastin and the chemotherapy agent paclitaxel has been shown to offer progression-free survival benefits and represents a valuable therapy method.

Its decision is based on positive recommendations from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, with Avastin plus paclitaxel representing the most common first-line breast cancer treatment option in Europe.

Avastin was the first anti-angiogenic therapy to be offered to advanced cancer sufferers and has been used by more than three-quarters of a million patients to date.

Dr Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head of global product development at Roche, said: "This is important news for thousands of women living with incurable HER2-negative breast cancer in the European Union."

Last month, the company published new phase III clinical trial data demonstrating that Avastin plus chemotherapy can potentially offer benefits in combating ovarian cancer.