Colorectal cancer patients benefited when they continued to include Avastin® (bevacizumab) in their chemotherapy plan after their cancer got worse after initial treatment.

They lived longer after beginning a second round of chemotherapy with Avastin than did other patients who got chemo without Avastin or those who didn’t get any chemotherapy at all.

The results are based on the ARIES study which observed patients after cancer progressed after either first or second line chemotherapy with Avastin.  The analysis will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June. Read the rest of this entry »

Briefly:

A video can help patients make personal decisions about end-of-life care.  Cancer death rates are falling in Europe, partly led by recent colorectal cancer declines.

Avastin will now be covered for a longer time for people with advanced colorectal cancer in Ontario.  The Wellness Community in Valley/Ventura, California has a free workshop scheduled for December 19th featuring Dr. Heinz-Josef Lenz. Read the rest of this entry »

Colorectal cancer patients 65 and older without other serious medical problems benefitted when Avastin® (bevacizumab) was added to chemotherapy.

Combining results of four randomized clinical trials of Avastin and chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, researchers found that adding Avastin increased both the time older patients lived and the time before their cancer got worse.

Patients who were 70 and older had similar improvements. Read the rest of this entry »

Get help managing the financial costs of your cancer care from an ASCO booklet or figure out how to deal with the Medicare prescription doughnut hole using an AARP online calculator.

In research, Lynch syndrome women have excellent survival after ovarian cancer, older patients have similar effectiveness and side effects from Avastin, and parents with advanced cancer often underestimate how upset their children are.  Long-term cancer survivors have no more depression than people without cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

In the plenary session at ASCO this year there was a presentation of a large NASBP trial which tested whether the addition of Avastin® (bevacizumab) to 6 months of FOLFOX would decrease tumor recurrence.

The data suggested that there was no benefit with the addition of Avastin, which was given not only for 6 months along with chemotherapy but 6 months in addition to FOLFOX for a total of 12 months. Read the rest of this entry »