The European Commission (EC) has approved Roche's Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with standard chemotherapy (carboplatin and gemcitabine) as a treatment for women with first recurrence of platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

Avastin is already approved by the EC as a front-line (first-line following surgery) treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer. The additional approval of the medicine is important for women with ovarian cancer who are now able to receive Avastin in combination with chemotherapy once their disease returns. Patients are said to have ‘platinum-sensitive’ disease if their ovarian cancer returns more than 6 months after completion of platinum-based chemotherapy.

“This EU approval of Avastin is an important advance for women with recurrent ovarian cancer because very few treatment advances have been made in over a decade for patients with the disease,” said Hal Barron M.D., Roche’s chief medical officer and head of global product development.

This approval was based on data from the phase III OCEANS study which showed that women with recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer who received Avastin in combination with chemotherapy lived significantly longer without their disease getting worse (progression-free survival) compared to those who received chemotherapy alone (HR=0.48; p<0.0001).
Ovarian cancer is associated with high concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a protein associated with tumour growth and spread. Avastin is an antibody that precisely targets and inhibits VEGF for tumour control.

Roche has an extensive research and clinical trial programme investigating Avastin in patients with ovarian cancer in both the front-line and recurrent setting (when the cancer has returned after initial therapy), in order to help improve treatment outcomes for women with ovarian cancer.

Avastin has been shown to help women with ovarian cancer live longer without their disease getting worse in four large phase III clinical trials (GOG 0218, ICON7, OCEANS and AURELIA), and Avastin was approved for the treatment of women with newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer (front-line treatment) in Europe in December 2011.

This approval will enable the use of Avastin in combination with carboplatin and gemcitabine for treatment of adult patients with first recurrence of platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who have not received prior therapy with bevacizumab or other VEGF inhibitors or VEGF receptor-targeted agents. Avastin is administered in combination with carboplatin and gemcitabine for 6 and up to 10 cycles, followed by continued use of Avastin as single agent until disease progression. The recommended dose of Avastin is 15 mg/kg of body weight given once every 3 weeks as an intravenous infusion.

With the initial approval in the USA for advanced colorectal cancer in 2004, Avastin became the first anti-angiogenic therapy made widely available for the treatment of patients with an advanced cancer.

Today, Avastin is continuing to transform cancer care through its proven survival benefit (overall survival and/or progression free survival) across several types of cancer. Avastin is approved in Europe for the treatment of advanced stages of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, kidney cancer and ovarian cancer, and is available in the US for the treatment of colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and kidney cancer. In addition, Avastin is approved in the US and over 30 other countries for the treatment of patients with glioblastoma (a type of brain cancer). Avastin is approved in Japan for the treatment of the advanced stages of colorectal, non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer. Avastin is the only anti-angiogenic therapy available for the treatment of these numerous advanced cancer types, which collectively cause over 2.5 million deaths each year.

Avastin has made anti-angiogenic therapy a fundamental pillar of cancer treatment today – over one million patients have been treated with Avastin so far. A comprehensive clinical programme with more than 500 ongoing clinical trials is investigating the use of Avastin in over 50 tumour types.