Roche, the world leader in oncology medicines, revealed that it would present phase III trial results for herceptin and new survival results from the X-ACT trial on xeloda at the upcoming European Cancer Conference (ECCO). The conference will be held in Barcelona from September 23 to 27, 2007.

The company would also present over 20 abstracts on avastin (bevacizumab) across several tumour types, including lung, renal cell, breast and colorectal cancer, which reinforces its potential as the backbone for tumour therapies in the future.

While herceptin (trastuzumab) is used pre-operatively in patients with inflammatory breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that is particularly aggressive (the NOAH study), xeloda (capecitabine) is used post-operatively in patients with colon cancer.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide in women under 55. Between 20-30 per cent of women with breast cancer have HER2-positive disease, one of the more aggressive types with a high chance of relapse. HER2-positive disease seems to be higher (up to 52 per cent) in inflammatory breast cancer, a rare, but devastating form of the disease that often leads to mastectomies and has a worse outlook than other breast cancers, stated a company release.

In HER2-positive breast cancer, herceptin not only offers the best chance of a cure in early disease, but also has proven survival benefits in advanced disease. The promising NOAH data to be presented at ECCO will add to the weight of evidence supporting the use of herceptin, and give new hope for patients with inflammatory HER2-positive breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease, added the company press release.

Apart, colon cancer (cancer of the bowel) is one of the most common cancers in developed countries, and it is estimated that over 50 per cent of people diagnosed with colon cancer will die of the disease.

The eagerly awaited survival results from the X-ACT trial, which included patients with stage III colon cancer who had undergone surgery, will be presented for the first time at ECCO. The study was designed to show that oral xeloda is as effective as intravenous bolus 5FU/FA therapy, a chemotherapy that requires patients to undergo daily intravenous injections in hospital for five consecutive days, the company said.

Following avastin's approval last month in Europe for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of lung cancer, there will be seven data presentations at ECCO for avastin in lung, as well as more than 15 in other tumour types including colorectal, breast and kidney cancer, according to a company press release.

Avastin is the first anti-angiogenic agent, which has been shown to consistently deliver improved survival outcomes for patients with lung, colorectal, breast and kidney cancer. Avastin received approval in Europe for first-line treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in January 2005 and first-line treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer in March 2007.