Roche files Avastin for most common form of lung cancer

British doctors may soon be able to prescribe Avastin, the Roche drug, for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, the most common type of lung cancer.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company has submitted a marketing authorisation application to the European Medicines Agency to allow the use of Avastin with platinum-based chemotherapy. Roche’s submission is based on promising trial results that demonstrated a “strong survival benefit” for patients using Avastin with platinum-based chemotherapy, as opposed to using the chemotherapy on its own.

Avastin patients demonstrated a 20 per cent reduced risk of death compared to other patients at all times of the therapy, while average survival time was extended to 12.3 months in Avastin patients, compared to 10.3 months for patients receiving only chemotherapy.

The company claims that the marketing submission marks “a new reason for hope in Europe”, where 900 people die every day from lung cancer.

Eduard Holdener, head of Roche’s global drug development, remarked: “Avastin is the first biological therapy to show survival benefit in people with previously untreated non-small cell lung cancer.”

“Providing patients with novel treatment options to help them fight their disease is a priority for Roche, so we are very pleased to take the next step in making Avastin available to patients with this particularly devastating form of cancer,” he added.

The drug, which works by inhibiting the angiogenesis (formation of blood supply) of tumours, has already been indicated for use in colorectal and breast cancer. Roche says it is researching its use in other types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and renal cell carcinoma.

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