The use of Avastin alone for treating a subgroup of recurrent Grade 3 brain tumors is safe as well as effective to delay progression of tumor, as per a retrospective study of 22 patients conducted by a researcher at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Marc Chamberlain, M.D., author of the study published in an edition of the journal Cancer said that this therapy for gliomas has been the most promising of all the targeted therapies.

From Sciencedaily.com:

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.

Chamberlain, who is also 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, also remarked that bevacizumab (generic name for Avastin) has the potential to be the best palliative treatment.