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Avastin Improves Survival in Lung Cancer

For the first time, researchers have shown that a new kind of anticancer drug that starves tumors to death can extend the lives of people with certain lung cancers. Printer-friendly version

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By Charlene Laino

WebMD Feature Reviewed

By Brunilda Nazario, MD

This story is part of WebMD's coverage of the 41st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Other stories include:

Femara Beats Tamoxifen for Breast Cancer | Statin Drugs Linked to Reduced Cancer Risk | Regular Alcohol Intake Ups Breast Cancer Risk | Evista May Help Prevent Endometrial Cancer | Hormone May Prevent Prostate Cancer | Aspirin Prevents Colon Cancer Return | Low-Fat Diet May Cut Return of Breast Cancer | Hormonal Contraceptive Fights Hot Flashes | Exercise May Cut Risk of Colon Cancer's Return | Pill Fights Deadly Blood Cancer

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May 13, 2005 (Orlando, Fla.) -- For the first time, researchers have shown that a new kind of anticancer drug that starves tumors to death can extend the lives of people with certain lung cancers.

Adding the drug Avastin to standard chemotherapy added more than two months to the lives of people with advanced lung cancer, says researcher Alan B. Sandler, MD, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.

The findings will change the standard of care for many people with advanced lung cancer, the No. 1 cause of cancer death in the U.S., says Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and cancer biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Each year, more than 172,000 Americans are diagnosed with lung cancer. More than half of these people have advanced metastatic disease that has already spread to the bone, liver, and other organs, he says.

"In the metastatic setting, this is the very first time a targeted therapy -- in this case Avastin -- has been shown to improve survival," Herbst tells WebMD. "Avastin should now become the standard of care for the group of patients treated in this trial."

Avastin is a new type of cancer therapy, known as angiogenesis inhibitors. It works by preventing the formation of blood vessels in a tumor, which keeps the tumor from growing and spreading.

Avastin Extends Survival to Over 1 Year

The study included 878 people with advanced (non-small cell) lung cancers. About 85% of all lung cancers are non-small cell cancers.

The participants were given the standard chemotherapy for this type of cancer and half were also given Avastin.

People who received Avastin lived an average of 12 1/2 months, compared with just over 10 months for those on the standard cancer drugs alone.

Researchers show that at one year, more than half of the patients who received Avastin in combination with chemotherapy were alive vs. only 43% of those who received standard chemotherapy.

By two years, 22% of those on Avastin were still alive, compared with 17% of those on standard chemotherapy.

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