ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche has submitted an application to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) to extend its label of breast-cancer drug Avastin so that it can be used with docetaxel chemotherapy, the drugmaker said on Monday.
The filing is supported by data from the phase III Avado trial, which investigated Avastin in combination with docetaxel compared wwith docetaxel alone in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer, Roche said in a statement.
“The trial demonstrated that both doses of Avastin in combination with chemotherapy significantly increase the time patients live without their disease advancing compared to chemotherapy alone,” the group said.
Docetaxel is the chemotherapy preferred by many European physicians, Roche said.
Avastin is currently licensed in the EU as first-line treatment in patients with metastatic breast cancer in combination with the chemotherapy paclitaxel.
(Reporting by Katie Reid; Editing by David Cowell)