Avastin shows promise in brain cancer

DETROIT, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A clinical study in Michigan found that brain cancer patients treated with the drug Avastin are living longer without further progression of the disease.

The randomized Phase II study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit focused on patients with glioblastoma multiforme whose cancer had recurred after first- or second-line therapy. More than one-third who were treated with Avastin alone -- as well as more than half of those treated with Avastin in combination with the chemotherapy drug irinotecan -- lived for six months without further progression of the disease.

"This is very encouraging news," Dr. Tom Mikkelsen, co-director of the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center, said Friday in a release. "Historical estimates suggest that only 15 percent of patients with this aggressive type of brain cancer live without their cancer progressing within six months."

Avastin acts as an anti-angiogenesis agent that chokes off the blood supply to tumors, which in turn inhibits their growth and metastasis, the report said.