Avastin shows promise for brain cancer

“The same process that makes gliomas so deadly may turn out to be exactly the same thing that makes it possible to slow down their progression,” Dr. Mikkelsen says. "This is a very significant advance in the battle to control these aggressive tumors because it could lead to treatment options where none existed previously for patients with recurrent disease.”

Previously Avastin had been used in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer and lung cancer. Because of its demonstrated success rate with these cancers, Avastin currently is being studied worldwide in more than 300 clinical trials for 20 different tumor types.

“With currently approved therapies, the chances of suppressing GBM are poor at less than 10 percent,” says Dr. Mikkelsen. “This type of targeted therapy using Avastin may prove to be the best new hope we have for helping patients with recurrent disease who previously had few options available to them.”

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