How Bevacizumab (Avastin) was developed?
Bevacizumab is one of many angiogenesis inhibitors that have been developed based on a hypothesis of angiogenesis action published in 1971 by Judah Folkman, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. By 1983, scientists had demonstrated that tumors secrete VEGF and by 1989, VEGF had been cloned for investigational purposes. The first clinical trials to examine the efficacy of anti-angiogenic agents for cancer patients began in the 1990s. In February 2004, the FDA approved the use of bevacizumab based on a Phase III clinical trial sponsored by Genentech that showed benefit in first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer when the drug was added to standard chemotherapy (Hurwitz H, Fehrenbach L, Novotny W et al. Bevacizumab plus irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer, New England Journal of Medicine 2004; 350:2335-42). The results of this trial demonstrated that, when compared to the standard chemotherapy being prescribed for untreated metastati
