Avastin Earns FDA Approval for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treatment

Those with metastatic colorectal cancer may have a chance to live longer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Avastin for patients with colorectal cancer that worsened despite treatment with the medication.

Patients with colorectal cancer are often treated with Avastin in addition to chemotherapy. If the patient's condition worsened, though, they were not allowed to continue to be treated with Avastin. Now, Avastin can be used in combination with a different chemotherapy regimen if the patient's condition worsens. This new option may help people live longer than by solely changing to the new chemotherapy.

Colorectal cancer is a cancer that starts in the large intestine or the rectum. It is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., and early diagnosis is important in leading to a safe recovery.

This approval of the medicine is based on the results of a Phase III study that were presented at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. They revealed that people who continued to receive the Avastin regimen once the cancer progressed lived longer in comparison to people who only changed their chemotherapy regimen.

Avastin is commonly known as bevacizumab, and is an antibody that inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is a protein that tumors need in order to create nutrient-providing blood cells. It is the only medicine with FDA approval to treat patients with metastatic colorectal cancer combined with chemotherapy treatment.

But the medicine isn't just approved in the U.S. It has also been approved in Europe for combination use with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum.

Research has showed that the risk of death decreased by 19 percent for those who took Avastin in combination with standard chemotherapy. This could be a huge difference for those suffering from this type of cancer.