Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), a non-profit foundation and Genentech Inc. have collaborated to explore the potential of Avastin (bevacizumab) in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an especially deadly form of brain cancer. This collaboration is the second alliance between these two entities, based on the ABC2 model of collaborating with the bio-pharmaceutical industry to rapidly move new therapies into the clinic to benefit patients with this disease.

The initial stage of this joint effort is focused on a novel imaging study of patients with recurrent GBM who are enrolled in a Phase II clinical trial at Duke University. Using a DCE technique (dynamic contrast enhancement) as part of a brain MRI scan, researchers hope to explore several potential mechanisms of activity and determine if the early responses seen on the MRI scans are indicators of clinical benefit, maintains a company release.

Under the terms of the collaboration, ABC2 will share development expenses with Genentech in this initial stage. If the results are encouraging, ABC2 then they would provide access to its resources, including its clinical network of four leading research centers, for a Genentech-sponsored randomised clinical trial in relapsed GBM.

"We are very excited to support Genentech's efforts to study the potential of Avastin in patients with GBM. Our mission to accelerate a cure for brain cancer depends in large part on screening therapies that are already approved for other diseases, which if proved useful in brain cancer, can quickly be moved through clinical trials and to the patients who need them. The collaboration with Genentech to study Avastin in patients with brain cancer is precisely consistent with our mission," commented John Reher, ABC2, executive director.

Avastin is a therapeutic antibody designed to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a protein that plays an important role in tumour angiogenesis and maintenance of existing tumour vessels. By binding to VEGF, Avastin is designed to interfere with the blood supply to tumours, a process that is critical to tumour growth and metastasis. It was the first US FDA approved therapy designed to inhibit angiogenesis and is approved for the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with intravenous 5-FU-based chemotherapy.