(Avastin) Biologic treatment option now available to Canadian women living with advanced ovarian cancer

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 News Press Release Roche Canada| PharmiWeb.com
 
Biologic treatment option now available to Canadian women living with advanced ovarian cancer Canada NewsWire
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 5, 2015

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - Today, Roche Canada announced that Health Canada has approved Avastin® (bevacizumab), in combination with chemotherapy, to treat patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. Until recently, only chemotherapy1 and surgery2 were available for Canadians diagnosed with advanced disease.
Avastin is now approved, in combination with specific chemotherapy, to treat women following their first recurrence platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer or for the treatment of patients with recurrent, platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who received no more than two prior chemotherapy regimens.
"The approval of Avastin is an important advancement in the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer as it offers women with advanced disease a novel therapy that can have meaningful improvements in their care and delay their cancer from progressing," says Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, Gynecologist, Oncologist, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ottawa and Head of Surgical Oncology, The Ottawa Hospital. "Most women with advanced ovarian cancer will experience progression of their disease after their initial treatment with surgery and chemotherapy, so the need for additional options is important."

Avastin is also approved in both the United States and the European Union (EU) for recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and in the EU for recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.