Jul 20 2010 ↓Who Said What
Avastin, a drug primarily created by Roche to combat colon cancer showed tremendous promise for treating breast cancer as well. Yet the Food and Drug Administration has withdrawn its approval for the drug as a breast cancer medication 12 to 1 on grounds that Avastin, while promising, doesn’t really extend a patient’s life.
After more testing, it was said on Friday that the drug was not proven to extend women’s lives any more than other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy.
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Avastin was originally given tentative approval as a drug to treat breast cancer when initial studies showed that the drug slowed the disease progress by a few months. The drug however did fail to proof that it also extended life.
According to Forbes:
“What really matters for a cancer drug is whether it helps the patient live longer. But those studies are very hard to do and take years. That’s why drug companies want to get drugs approved based on what are known as surrogate endpoints: Does the drug slow progression of the disease on a scan? Does it shrink tumors? But pretty-looking scans aren’t guaranteed to translate into fewer deaths. Maybe the disease will come back faster once the drug is stopped.”
Avastin not approved as breast cancer drug
A final decision will be made by the FDA after September 17 2010, when the FDA expects to receive the advisory panel’s recommendation regarding Avastin.
We understand the FDA’s position that life is a treasured commodity that must be preserved as long as possible. Still, to deny breast cancer patients, and for that matter, any other seriously ill individual, access to medications that possibly slows down the progress of this dreaded disease would be an injustice to those patients as they undoubtedly welcome any treatment that helps them with this awful illness, even if only a little bit.
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