PET/CT Scan of breast cancerWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, HG6996
In the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision to revoke approval of Avastin for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, drug maker Genentech says it will conduct a new clinical trial to determine which patients are likely to benefit from the drug.
The decision came after an advisory panel unanimously voted to revoke approval in June. The panel found that the drug only slightly decreased tumor size and didn’t increase lifespan compared to patients on standard chemotherapy.
But many patients and doctors suspect the drug is helping at least some women. "There absolutely may be subsets of carefully chosen breast cancer patients who benefit from Avastin," Elisa Port, co-director of the Dubin Breast Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, told ...
