Patients suffering from recurrent glioblastoma, which is a deadly form of brain cancer, can now expect great relief coming their way after a recent study suggested that the use of Avastin, alone or as a combination therapy can help them improve response rates, survival rates, and progression-free survival times.

Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior author of the study, said that Avastin alone or in a combination with CPT-11 can easily enhance the response rate and overall survival.

From News-Medical.Net:

The two-armed study enrolled 167 patients with recurrent glioblastoma. One arm evaluated Avastin used as a single agent, the other Avastin given with CPT-11. An independent radiological facility was used to measure tumor responses, Cloughesy said.

In the Avastin only arm, 28.2 percent of patients responded to the treatment, meaning their tumors shrunk by 50 percent or more, a significant increase from the historic 5 percent response rates. Of the 80 patients, 42.6 percent surpassed the six month mark without their disease progressing, up from the historic 15 to 20 percent of patients. Survival was 9.2 months, a slight increase of the typical six to seven month survival time.

In the arm studying Avastin with CPT-11, 37.8 percent of patients responded to the treatment, while 50.3 percent surpassed the six month progression-free survival mark. Overall survival was 8.7 months, a little less than the Avastin only study.

The findings of this study can be termed as pathbreaking when it comes to treating patients with recurrent glioblastoma since Avastin has found to be effective for minimizing swelling of the brain and doses of steroids.