UK Rejects Roche's Avastin in Advanced Breast Cancer

Roche Holding AG's cancer drug Avastin has been rejected by Britain's healthcare cost agency as a first-line treatment for advanced breast cancer, the latest in a series of setbacks for this medicine. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said on Friday that although Avastin, when used in combination with the chemotherapy drug Xeloda, could delay cancer from progressing longer than chemotherapy alone, it did not appear to help breast cancer patients live longer overall. There were also question marks over whether or not Avastin, known generically as bevacizumab, could improve a patient's quality of life, according to NICE's Ch ief Executive A ndrew Dillon.

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