Treatment for advanced ovarian cancer receives positive opinion

BASEL, Switzerland — Roche has announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion for the use of bevacizumab in combination with standard chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel) as a front-line treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly of the gynaecological cancers and approximately 140,000 women die from the disease each year.

In a setting with few advances in the last decade, bevacizumab has demonstrated in two phase III studies that women who received the combination of bevacizumab and chemotherapy and then continued on bevacizumab alone, lived significantly longer without their disease getting worse (progression-free survival) compared to those who received chemotherapy only.

“The positive CHMP opinion is great news for women with advanced ovarian cancer, who need more effective treatment options,” said Dr. Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head of global product development of Roche.

“Approval of bevacizumab would be a major development in this setting where few treatment advances have been seen in over a decade,” Barron said.

The CHMP has supported the use of bevacizumab in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel for the front-line treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube carcinoma.

The final approval from the European Commission is expected later this year.

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and the seventh leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide.

Annually, over 220,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer around the world and approximately 140,000 will die from the disease. 

Surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible is a mainstay of treatment but unfortunately, majority of patients are diagnosed with late stage disease (when the cancer has grown or spread) and they require further treatment.

Roche has an extensive research and clinical trial program investigating bevacizumab in patients with ovarian cancer in both the front-line and recurrent setting (when the cancer has returned after initial therapy), in order to help improve treatment outcomes for women with ovarian cancer.