2008 Woodie Awards
New drug improves survival of breast cancer patients
Bibi Tella
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: Pulse
Media Credit: GenentechBreast Cancer patients can now add Avastin to their treatment regimen to reduce the debilitating effects of chemotherapy.
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 178,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 40,000 will die from the disease in the United States in 2007. However, hope is not lost.
Rush University participated in the clinical trial of Bevacizumab Avastin, a drug found to improve survival for patients with advanced breast cancer. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that combining Avastin with chemotherapy significantly prolongs progression-free survival for breast cancer patients compared to just chemotherapy alone. The study, conducted by a network of researchers, found that women who received Avastin as well as standard chemotherapy were pain-free for approximately five months on average, double compared to patients treated with chemotherapy alone. In addition, those on Avastin alone had progression-free survival of 11.3 months compared to 6 months on standard chemotherapy alone.
Avastin is a therapeutic antibody designed to specifically restrain the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is a protein that plays a crucial role in angiogenesis and the preservation of existing blood vessels throughout the lifecycle of a tumor. By inhibiting VEGF, Avastin is designed to interfere with the blood supply to a tumor, which is thought to be critical to a tumor's ability to grow and spread in the body.
Chemotherapy, the standard treatment for breast cancer, works by destroying the fast-growing cancer cells. Unfortunately, chemo cannot differentiate between the fast-growing abnormal cells and the fast-growing healthy cells of your body. This means the chemotherapy will kill healthy cells such as cells in the hair (causing hair loss), cells in the bone marrow (causing a higher risk of infection, a tired feeling, and easy bruising and bleeding), cells of the skin and mouth (causing sores in the mouth and dry skin), and cells in the stomach and intestines (causing a sick feeling in the stomach, vomiting, and diarrhea). Avastin works to lessens the effects of chemotherapy.
"This therapy is a one-two punch! You hit the tumor with the chemo and sabotage new blood vessel growth by restricting its oxygen supply with Avastin," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh, the co-author of the study and director of the Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Breast Cancer at Rush.
Avastin not only slowed the growth of the tumor, it also doubled the remission rate by 50 percent or more compared with chemotherapy alone. With chemotherapy, 25 percent of tumors responded; with the combination of chemotherapy and Avastin, 49 percent of tumors responded.
Rush University Medical Center has been involved in the study of Avastin from the very beginning, participating in the Phase I, Phase II and Phase III studies of the drug. The next step is studying if the drug in the adjuvant setting to determine if it can help decrease the risk of cancer recurrence. This new development can help make a big impact on research in breast cancer.
"The tumor can't grow bigger than the size of a sesame seed without an oxygen supply," said Cobleigh. "And patients can stay on Avastin as long at it works. It is not a chemotherapy drug so it has minimal toxicity. This is a noteworthy advance in cancer treatment."
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Rush University participated in the clinical trial of Bevacizumab Avastin, a drug found to improve survival for patients with advanced breast cancer. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that combining Avastin with chemotherapy significantly prolongs progression-free survival for breast cancer patients compared to just chemotherapy alone. The study, conducted by a network of researchers, found that women who received Avastin as well as standard chemotherapy were pain-free for approximately five months on average, double compared to patients treated with chemotherapy alone. In addition, those on Avastin alone had progression-free survival of 11.3 months compared to 6 months on standard chemotherapy alone.
Avastin is a therapeutic antibody designed to specifically restrain the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is a protein that plays a crucial role in angiogenesis and the preservation of existing blood vessels throughout the lifecycle of a tumor. By inhibiting VEGF, Avastin is designed to interfere with the blood supply to a tumor, which is thought to be critical to a tumor's ability to grow and spread in the body.
Chemotherapy, the standard treatment for breast cancer, works by destroying the fast-growing cancer cells. Unfortunately, chemo cannot differentiate between the fast-growing abnormal cells and the fast-growing healthy cells of your body. This means the chemotherapy will kill healthy cells such as cells in the hair (causing hair loss), cells in the bone marrow (causing a higher risk of infection, a tired feeling, and easy bruising and bleeding), cells of the skin and mouth (causing sores in the mouth and dry skin), and cells in the stomach and intestines (causing a sick feeling in the stomach, vomiting, and diarrhea). Avastin works to lessens the effects of chemotherapy.
"This therapy is a one-two punch! You hit the tumor with the chemo and sabotage new blood vessel growth by restricting its oxygen supply with Avastin," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh, the co-author of the study and director of the Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Breast Cancer at Rush.
Avastin not only slowed the growth of the tumor, it also doubled the remission rate by 50 percent or more compared with chemotherapy alone. With chemotherapy, 25 percent of tumors responded; with the combination of chemotherapy and Avastin, 49 percent of tumors responded.
Rush University Medical Center has been involved in the study of Avastin from the very beginning, participating in the Phase I, Phase II and Phase III studies of the drug. The next step is studying if the drug in the adjuvant setting to determine if it can help decrease the risk of cancer recurrence. This new development can help make a big impact on research in breast cancer.
"The tumor can't grow bigger than the size of a sesame seed without an oxygen supply," said Cobleigh. "And patients can stay on Avastin as long at it works. It is not a chemotherapy drug so it has minimal toxicity. This is a noteworthy advance in cancer treatment."
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