Ovarian cancer treatment receives FDA approval

Ovarian cancer causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other gynecologic cancer.
Ovarian cancer causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other gynecologic cancer. | File photo
Ovarian cancer patients who have a sensitivity to chemotherapy will soon have another option to treat their disease as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Avastin as an alternative to or supplement for chemotherapy.
“Women now have a treatment option that showed a survival difference of more than five months compared to chemotherapy alone,” said Dr. Sandra Homing, chief medical officer and head of global product development for Genentech, the drug's developer.
In the United States, ovarian cancer causes more annual deaths than any other gynecologic cancer.
“This approval demonstrates Genentech’s commitment to women with ovarian cancer, a disease with signs and symptoms that too often go unrecognized,"  National Ovarian Cancer Coalition CEO David Barley said.