The use of Avastin for treating a subgroup of recurrent Grade 3 brain tumors was recently termed as safe and effective, as per a retrospective study of 22 patients conducted by a researcher at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Generically known as bevacizumab, Avastin is the first approved therapy designed to inhibit angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels develop and transport important nutrients to a tumor. The drug is presently approved for treating certain metastatic colon cancers and non-small cell lung cancer.

From News-Medical.Net:

Chamberlain said he expects that patients treated with the drug will have a marked improvement in their quality of life because the use of steroids, a common treatment that has significant side effects, can be greatly reduced or even eliminated.

“While treatment with Avastin does dramatically improve survival time, the time that patients have left is of better quality and less about living with the disease itself,” Chamberlain said. In this study, the patients, ages 24-60, received an infusion of bevacizumab every two weeks for an average of 14.5 cycles (range was two to 39 cycles). Fourteen (64 percent) patients showed a partial response to the medicine as shown on radiographic scans. Two patients had stable disease and six had progressive disease. Progression-free survival ranged from three to 18 months and survival for the entire group of patients was three to 19 months.

Marc Chamberlain, who is director of the Neuro-oncology Program at the SCCA and a professor of neurology and neurological surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine and author of the study, said that Bevacizumab stands out as the most promising of all the targeted therapies for gliomas.