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Breast cancer drug bevacizumab turned down for NHS use
April 18, 2012
New draft guidance does not recommend bevacizumab alongside capecitabine for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
The combination of bevacizumab (brand name Avastin) and chemotherapy drug capecitabine is not being recommended for use on the NHS in patients with metastatic breast cancer, the healthcare guidance body for England and Wales has revealed.
New draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) does not recommend the drug as a first-line treatment for this stage of the disease.
The institute's appraisal committee reviewed evidence provided by the drug's manufacturer and concluded that the treatment was not a good use of NHS resources.
Its members noted that it was unclear whether the treatment would increase overall survival and that it may not improve patients' quality of life.
The institute's chief executive, Sir Andrew Dillon, said: "We can't recommend a drug that has not been shown to work as well as, or better than, current treatments and costs much more.
"Bevacizumab has so far not been proven to be clinically or cost-effective."
Breakthrough Breast Cancer's senior policy officer, Dr Rachel Greig, said that new life-prolonging treatments are "incredibly important" to women with advanced breast cancer.
"However, this treatment combination can cause serious side-effects and there is no evidence to show how this may affect a patient's quality of life," she added.
The latest draft guidance comes just weeks after NICE decided not to recommend a separate drug called eribulin (Halaven) for the treatment of secondary breast cancer in patients who have already had chemotherapy.
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