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June 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda SUNDAY, June 3 (HealthDay News) — Treating advanced-stage colon
cancer patients with a combination of chemotherapy and the tumor-targeting
drug Avastin appears to prolong survival among those who have already
undergone the combination therapy at an earlier stage of disease, new
German research finds.
Avastin (bevacizumab) works by interfering with the growth of blood
vessels that tumors require to grow and spread.
In the United States, Avastin already is used in combination with
chemotherapy as the standard of care for both initial treatment and
second-line treatment, which is for patients who require additional
treatment for progressing disease.
The current study’s specific finding that Avastin is beneficial as a
second go-round for patients with advanced disease could alter the way
patients in Europe are treated, given that typically the combined therapy
is used either as a first- or second-line treatment, but not both.
“These findings confirm what many physicians and researchers have long
suspected: that extended bevacizumab treatment provides meaningful
benefits for patients with advanced colorectal cancer without adding
significant side effects,” Dr. Dirk Arnold, director of the Hubertus Wald
Tumor Center at the University Cancer Center of University Clinic
Eppendorf in Hamburg, said in a news release from the American Society of
Clinical Oncology.
Arnold added that Avastin also could prove useful as a mainstay drug
for advanced patients who may have built up resistance to their
first-round chemotherapy.
“By simply switching chemotherapy drugs when the cancer progresses and
continuing with bevacizumab, we can make second-line treatment even more
powerful,” he suggested.
Arnold and his colleagues are scheduled to present their findings
Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.
In all, 820 patients with inoperable colon cancer that had spread to
areas outside the initial tumor region participated in the study from 2006
to 2010. All had been treated with one chemotherapy drug and Avastin as a
first-line treatment. When it came time for a second-line treatment, some
patients received a different chemo drug plus Avastin, while the others
received chemo plus a placebo.
The result: Those treated with the Avastin-chemo combination
experienced better median overall survival times (more than 11 months
versus less than 10 months) and better progression-free survival (almost 6
months versus about 4 months).
Dr. Frank Sinicrope, professor of medicine and oncology at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minn., characterized the study findings as
“especially important.”
“This prospective study supports prior evidence for continuing
bevacizumab after progression of standard first-line chemotherapy
containing bevacizumab,” he said.
And that, Sinicrope added, suggests that the German team’s observations
have “practice-changing implications for advanced [colon] cancer
patients.”
The drug, made by Roche, comes with a hefty price tag — more than
$8,000 a month, according to published reports.
Arnold has acted as a consultant or adviser to Roche.
Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rescinded its approval
of Avastin to treat advanced breast cancer, saying the risks outweigh the
benefits for that use.
Data and results presented at medical meetings should be viewed as
preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more about colon cancer.
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