FDA's decision on Avastin

Dear Friends and Family,

Some of you may have seen press coverage recently on using Avastin for metastatic breast cancer and you might recall that I was on Avastin from September through April with amazing results. Jake and I are quite concerned about the FDA's decision to disapprove the use Avastin for patients like me. The argument of the FDA is that Avastin doesn't show enough clinical benefit and it is extremely expensive.

Jake and I (and my oncologist) disagree with the notion that it doesn't show clinical benefit and we're fighting to sway the FDA. If you want to help, you can sign the petition located here. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/stop-the-fda-from-disproving-avastin-to-treat-metastatic-breast-cancer/

You can also email the FDA and encourage them to reconsider their decision.

margaret.hamburg@fda.hhs.gov
patricia.keegan@fda.hhs.gov
janet.woodcock@fda.hhs.gov
richard.pazdur@fda.hhs.gov

If you want to read more background on Avastin, here is a link to an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748704271804575405203894857436.html

There's a lot of controversy about the clinical benefit, but I'm living proof that it is a powerful drug. Avastin seems to help certain patients, not all, but I think it is important to know it is improving the time between progressions for lots of patients (translation, it provides better quality of life even if it doesn't improve overall survival). It is extremely expensive (I think mine was about $24,000 per month), but chemo is expensive (Abraxane was something like $32,000 per month). It has potentially serious side effects, but so do all the other chemo drugs.

-Nancy