FDA APPROVES AVASTIN TO TREAT MOST COMMON TYPE OF LUNG CANCER

The FDA approved Genentech's Avastin as a treatment against the most common kind of lung cancer, after clinical trials showed the drug could increase survival time.

In a Phase III study of patients who had not received any previous therapy, Avastin along with standard chemotherapy showed a 25 percent improvement in overall survival compared with patients who received only chemotherapy. The Avastin and chemotherapy combination is the first treatment to lengthen survival in patients with advanced lung cancer beyond one year, Genentech said. Median survival time for patients in the study who received Avastin was 12.3 months. Those who did only chemotherapy had a median survival time of 10.3 months.

Genentech also hailed Avastin as the first therapy to improve on first-line lung cancer treatment in 10 years. The company said it will limit Avastin's cost to $55,000 a year for eligible patients in the U.S., regardless of whether patients are insured. Most insurers and Medicare cover Avastin for its previously approved uses.

Lung cancer accounts for 30 percent of all cancer deaths in the U.S. -- the most of any cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The form Avastin treats is unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic, non-squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer. Seventy-five percent of the estimated 174,400 new cases of lung cancer this year are expected to be non-small-cell.