Avastin is a pill that is FDA approved for the therapy of patients with metastatic colon cancer. Now avastin is finding other uses. It has been shown that Avastin could be very useful in lung cancer.

A pill that starves tumors of their blood supply can help patients live longer, without adding to some of the worst effects of chemotherapy, scientists report.

They said Avastin helped patients live a median of two months longer -- a significant time for lung cancer, which commonly kills quickly after it is diagnosed.

And more patients were helped by chemotherapy when Avastin was added, they reported in this week's issue of the New England Journal (NEJM).

"This is great news for patients with lung cancer -- they live longer, and the side effects from Avastin are unlike those of conventional chemotherapy. For example, Avastin does not cause hair loss, nausea, or vomiting," said Dr. Joan Schiller, chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who led the trial.

The scientists added Avastin to standard chemotherapy in a trial of 878 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

This is the most common form of lung cancer, which will kill an estimated 162,460 people in the United States alone in in 2006.


Posted by: Justin234    Source

---