Avastin helps stem kidney cancer progression - study

By Kim Dixon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The drug Avastin helped stem the progression of advanced kidney cancer better than standard therapy alone, according to a study released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting on Saturday.

The results may boost efforts by drugmakers Genentech Inc. and Roche Holding AG to expand use of the colon cancer drug to treat kidney cancer, a tough-to-treat disease that typically requires surgery.

Avastin, the first drug designed to starve tumors of their blood supply and nutrients, was originally approved to treat colon cancer, but is now cleared as therapy for lung cancer in the United States and for breast cancer in Europe.

Genentech reported total Avastin sales of $1.85 billion in 2006.

Broadening uses of approved drugs is common in cancer and is a major theme at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago, where tens of thousands of doctors are discussing treatments.

The 649-patient, Roche-funded trial found that adding Avastin, known generically as bevacizumab, to a standard therapy boosted patients' progression-free survival to 10.2 months from 5.4 months.

Proving better progression-free survival, a measure of the probability that a patient will remain alive without the disease worsening, was the study's main goal.

Kidney cancer is hard to detect, and is usually diagnosed later in life. Until recently, there were few treatments for the disease, which kills about 100,000 people annually, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said.