Results show chemotherapy plus Avastin better treatment for breast cancer patients

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. An investigational drug for cancer increases the time patients live without the disease advancing, the drug’s manufacturer said Monday.

Genentech said a phase 3 trial of the drug Avastin (bevacizumab), designed for use in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic  HER2-negative breast cancer, showed that the drug compared favorably with treatments involving chemotherapy alone.

The trial, which the company dubbed RIBBON 1, comprised two independent study groups that evaluated Avastin with different types of chemotherapies in patients who had not previously received chemotherapy for their advanced cancer.