FDA approves combination therapy for kidney cancer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a combination therapy as a treatment for kidney cancer.

Genentech announced Monday that the FDA had approved the drug Avastin (bevacizumab) and interferon-alfa as a treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer. Kidney cancer is the eighth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and is expected to result in the deaths of about 13,000 Americans this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

“During the last five years, Avastin has been approved by the FDA to treat five different types of cancer,” Genentech chief medical officer and VP global development Hal Barron said in a statement. “We aim to help more people facing difficult-to-treat cancers and will continue studying Avastin in more than 30 other tumor types.”