The drug Avastin has been around for two decades, and commonly used to treat breast and colon cancer, however British researchers have discovered it is also effective in treating ovarian cancer, reports the Daily Mail.
Dubbed the ‘silent killer’ as ovarian cancer often has no symptoms – 80 percent of cases are not detected until it has spread. Currently, the only way to treat the cancer was surgery to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy.
However, research was recently revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference involving more than 1,500 women across Europe with advanced ovarian cancer. All had their tumor removed and received chemotherapy, however those who were also given Avastin, which starves the tumors of blood necessary to grow and spread, lived an average 7.8 months longer than the control group.
“We would like to be able to make ovarian cancer a chronic, rather than fatal, disease,” said lead investigator Dr Charlie Gourley, from the Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre.
Annwen Jones, chief executive of the charity Target Ovarian Cancer, said, “It is the first glimmer of hope that there are significant advancements in treatments for ovarian cancer on the horizon.”