On July 20, the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research voted 12 to 1 to recommend against the use of bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer

By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: July 20, 2010

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — An advisory panel has voted 12 to 1 to recommend that the FDA remove the advanced breast cancer indication from bevacizumab (Avastin), after two large clinical trials failed to demonstrate a clinically meaningful benefit of the drug, which carries serious side effects.

WASHINGTON — Adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy drugs doesn’t increase survival or improve symptoms for women with advanced breast cancer, according to FDA documents posted in advance of an advisory panel meeting on Tuesday.

Danny Welch, Ph.D., is a senior scientist in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and a renowned expert in the biology and genetics of cancer metastasis - the process by which cancer cells break away from a primary tumor and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system and spread to other parts of the body.

On average, about five percent of total cancer research funding is spent on investigating metastases (the spread of cancer cells around the body) in Europe, yet metastatic disease is the direct or indirect cause of 90 percent of all cancer deaths, according to an editorial in the European Journal of Cancer (EJC). [1]

9th July 2010 — In draft guidance issued today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) is not recommended for use in combination with a taxane for patients whose breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

CHICAGO — Biopsy of distant metastases may identify a change in tumor biology in a proportion of breast cancer patients, according to a retrospective study.

WAYNE, N.J., June 17 /PRNewswire/ — Bayer Schering Pharma AG and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced a global strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialize novel anti-cancer stem cell therapeutics targeting the Wnt signaling pathway. Cancer stem cells are a subset of tumor cells believed to play a significant role in the establishment, metastasis and recurrence of cancer and agents targeting the Wnt pathway have the potential to be developed as pan-tumor drugs.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For premenopausal women with hormone-receptor positive metastatic breast cancer, combination therapy with goserelin and letrozole appears to be an effective new option, Korean researchers report in the April 26th online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology

June 10, 2010 (Chicago, Illinois) — For breast cancer patients whose disease has metastasized, tumor biology often changes between primary and metastatic lesions.