Local Cancer Center Says New Drug
Can Improve Lives
WOAI News Radio 1200

Cancer doctors at San Antonio's START Center for Cancer Care say a new drug for aggressive brain cancer has the potential to be a major break through in the treatment of that devastating condition, 1200 WOAI's Cari Laque reports. 

"This has pretty much changed my practice," said Dr. Lisa Fichtel, a medical oncologist and hematologist at the START Center, the region's leading cancer therapy and treatment facility. 

The drug, called Avastin, was just approved this week by the FDA for use on patients with aggressive forms of brain cancer.  It is the first new treatment for patients with glioblastoma in more than a decade, according to researchers at UCLA. 

Glioblastoma affects approximately 10,000 people per year in the United States, and tumors nearly always return following initial treatment.  

Dr. Fichtel says the key to Avastin, is that not only does it treat the disease, it also lengthens the patients' lives and improves their quality of life.  

"I went from people living just a few months, to having people on this medicine for a few years," she said.  

The unusual accelerated approval of Avastin is based on peer reviewed data showing that a far greater number of patients responded positively to Avastin than to traditional chemotherapies. 

Also, far fewer patients reported side effects including infection, fatigue, and headache, which are common in traditional chemotherapy.  

"This drug actually uses the body's immune system, to attack the new blood vessels where tumors grow," Dr. Fichtel said, citing a reason why the drug has fewer side effects. 

 Avastin was developed by Genentech, a biotechnology firm based in northern California. 
It is a part of the Roche Group.