HonCode

Go Back   HER2 Support Group Forums > Articles of Interest
Register Gallery FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-22-2005, 11:27 PM   #1
Merridith
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...BUGJ1C9QJ11.DTL


April 16, 2005

Genentech Inc.'s pioneering colon cancer drug Avastin, already showing potential as a lung cancer treatment, delivered significant benefits to breast cancer patients in clinical trial results announced Friday by the company and the National Cancer Institute.

In positive data that emerged earlier than expected from the late-stage study, Avastin delayed the worsening of metastatic breast cancer when combined with chemotherapy.

Health experts emphasized that Avastin, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is not a cure for breast cancer. But its ability to control the disease for a longer period is a significant advance, said institute Director Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

"This is an important step in our journey to ultimately eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer,'' he said.

Genentech shares leapt more than 18 percent Friday, gaining $10.72, or 18. 28 percent, to close at $69.35.

The jump in the share price was the second in just over a month related to the success of Avastin in a major cancer category. On March 14, the South San Francisco biotech giant reported that Avastin lengthened the average survival of lung cancer patients.

Both the breast and lung cancer results came from interim analyses of clinical trials that will be fully reported at later scientific meetings.

Genentech said it will start talking with the Food and Drug Administration about receiving approval to market Avastin to treat breast cancer. Avastin was approved as a first-line treatment for metastatic colon cancer in early 2004.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that 211,240 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States in 2005.

Deutsche Bank biotech analyst Jennifer Chao upgraded Genentech from "hold" to "buy" and raised her 2006 revenue estimates for Avastin to $1.7 billion from $1.25 billion.

"Having scored ... in the colorectal, lung and now (metastatic breast) cancer settings, the outlook for Avastin is growing significantly brighter,'' Chao said in a research note.

Signs that Avastin works on a variety of tumor types lend validity to a long-held theory that many different cancers might be controlled by the same means: attacking their need for blood vessels to nourish their growth. Avastin interferes with a chemical signal that spurs the development of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis.

The breast cancer study confirms that Genentech is on the right track with its anti-angiogenesis drug, said its chief medical officer, Hal Barron. "We've really hit on a fundamental paradigm of tumor biology,'' he said.

Chemotherapy alone would be expected to stave off a worsening of symptoms for an average of six months for the type of patients involved in the breast cancer trial, Barron said.

The use of Avastin with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel extended that interval of progression-free survival by an average of four months, the National Cancer Institute reported. Researchers had designed the study to pick up a two-month difference and had not expected to see full statistical support for that two-month benefit until late 2005 or early 2006, Barron said.

A four-month difference might not seem like much when everyone wants a cure, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

However, it signals a significant advance. "I continue to emphasize that progress in these diseases is really incremental,'' Lichtenfeld said. "These incremental changes not only prove this drug works in this disease, but also put us a little bit further down the road to being able to increase survival."

Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, said the Avastin trial might signal progress toward medicines that are more finely tuned to attack cancer mechanisms.

"We eagerly await release of the data on the Avastin study. There are few innovative treatments for breast cancer, and we are excited that this may be one of them,'' Visco said.

Dr. William Li, president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, said more than 80 experimental drugs designed to block tumor blood-vessel formation are being studied. The success of Avastin, the only anti-angiogenesis drug approved to this point, will pave the way for others, he said.

Lichtenfeld said Avastin will stimulate research funding in the area.

But its success might also bring health care funding concerns to the forefront. New biotech cancer drugs like Avastin are expensive, and they don't eliminate the need for other treatments like chemotherapy, he said.

In colon cancer, a course of Avastin treatment costs about $40,000. In the breast cancer trial, researchers gave patients double the dose used in colon cancer, Barron said, based on earlier studies that showed greater effectiveness at higher levels. Higher doses might also be indicated for lung cancer.
  Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 12:22 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright HER2 Support Group 2007 - 2021
free webpage hit counter