Roche announced results from a phase-III study (RIBBON 2) of Avastin (bevacizumab) in women with advanced HER2-negative breast cancer who had previously received chemotherapy as first-line treatment. The study showed that women who received Avastin in combination with commonly used chemotherapies as second-line treatment had a 28% improvement in the chance of being alive without the disease getting worse (progression-free survival or PFS) compared to chemotherapy alone. Adverse events were consistent with those previously reported for Avastin and no new Avastin safety findings were observed in the study.

This is a significant result as most women with advanced disease will see their cancer get worse when their initial chemotherapy stops working and currently, the only option for these women is subsequent chemotherapy.

“This is the first phase-III study to show that the combination of an anti-angiogenic medicine with commonly used second-line chemotherapy can extend the time women with advanced breast cancer live without the disease worsening,” said Dr Adam Brufsky, medical director of the Women's Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and principal investigator of the study.

RIBBON 2 is another positive phase-III trial, adding to the clinical evidence for Avastin as a treatment for women with advanced breast cancer, this time in the second-line setting. The role of Avastin in the first-line setting is well established and supported by the results of three phase-III studies of Avastin (E2100, AVADO and RIBBON-1). Overall, these studies show consistent efficacy and safety across patient sub-groups and independent of the chemotherapies Avastin was combined with.

RIBBON 2 is an international, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study that enrolled 684 patients with previously treated metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer.

Avastin is an antibody that specifically binds and blocks the biological effects of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor).