The FINANCIAL — Roche announced on November 24 that the Avastin study RIBBON-1 met its primary endpoint of increasing the time women with breast cancer lived without their disease advancing (known as progression-free survival) compared to chemotherapy alone, as determined by the treating physicians.
RIBBON-1 is a double blind phase III study in first-line metastatic HER-2 negative breast cancer investigating Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with either taxane-based, anthracycline-based or Xeloda (capecitabine) chemotherapies. The data will be submitted for presentation at a future medical meeting.
“This is really important news for breast cancer patients and physicians” said William M. Burns, CEO Division Roche Pharmaceuticals. “This study proves that patients benefit when Avastin is combined with commonly used chemotherapy which will give physicians more flexibility when selecting the most appropriate course of Avastin-based therapy for their patients.”
RIBBON-1 is the first phase III study to show Avastin’s benefit when combined with Xeloda as well as anthracycline-based chemotherapies in this patient population and it also substantiates the benefits of Avastin when combined with taxane-based chemotherapies. The results are further proof that Avastin can be effectively combined with several commonly used chemotherapies for first-line treatment of HER- 2 negative metastatic breast cancer, allowing patients to live longer without their disease getting worse.
RIBBON-1 supports the previously established safety profile of Avastin.
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