The treatment for breast cancer just had a bit of setback, if they can call it that. There is a drug out on the market called Avastin and it looks like it is going to be pulled from the shelves for treatment of breast cancer.
The drug, which has been going through the initial stages of drug therapy, is working to treat various forms of cancers, but looks like now it won’t be treating breast cancer. Here’s a run down of what is going on with Avastin.
Avastin is known as Bevacizumab. This drug has been made to stop the blood and nutrients from going to tumors. This is thought to, in effect, stop the growing of tumors which will make it that much easier for the treatment to focus on just one or two small tumors.
This drug is used in colon and lung cancer. However, there was also talk that this drug would be used well in breast cancer. The idea was that it could defeat the tumor growth in the breast and allow for the doctors to take care of the cancer in a centralized location. However, the United States Food and Drug administration has determined that there are a few problems with Avastin in the fight against breast cancer.
It turns out that the drug has not been doing well in the clinical trials to help with breast cancer. The drug is effective in beating cancer once it spreads to other parts of the body so it appears that that is the way the drug is going to be marketed. There are a great number of steps that have to be taken for a drug to go onto the market but it looks as if Avastin will make it’s way onto the market in just a few short months. However, those looking for it to help control breast cancer will have to look elsewhere. It’s just not made for that it seems.