FDA Approves Avastin for the Most Common Type of Kidney Cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Genentech's Avastin (bevacizumab) plus interferon-alfa for people with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.

This FDA approval is based on data from a Phase 3 study of patients with previously untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The study showed patients who received Avastin plus interferon-alfa lived 10.2 months without disease progression compared with 5.4 months for those who received interferon-alfa alone.

Avastin is a biologic antibody designed to specifically bind to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that plays an important role throughout the lifecycle of a tumor to develop and maintain blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Avastin is designed to interfere with the blood supply to a tumor by directly binding to the VEGF protein to prevent interactions with receptors on blood vessel cells. Avastin does not bind to receptors on normal or cancer cells.