Indiana Accident News

Avastin Not Approved by FDA for Breast Cancer Treatment

Posted on Dec 30, 2011

After looking at the results of a number of new studies and trials, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked its earlier approval for Avastin as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
 
According to CNN, the drug is still approved by the FDA to treat colon cancer, lung cancer, kidney cancer, and brain cancer. Those who speak with their doctors and decide to use Avastin to treat their breast cancer will not likely receive insurance coverage for the medication.
 
The drug went through the FDA’s accelerated approval process in order to get the drug, which is used in combination with paclitaxel, to women with HER2 negative breast cancer who needed immediate treatment. However, when the drug’s developer and manufacturer, Genentech, completed its trials, it discovered that the drug neither improved women’s quality of life or lengthened their survival after diagnosis. In fact, the drug’s many side effects, which include bleeding, heart attack, stomach perforation, and intestine perforation, outweigh benefits in most cases.
 
Genentech said that it would continue with trials in order to discover more about the effectiveness of the drug. At the same time, the FDA says that it will reconsider approval if new findings show the drug can help women with breast cancer.

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