Statement on U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Decision removing Avastin from Approved Breast Cancer Drugs

Organization Urges Aggressive Research into Treatments for Advanced and Metastatic Cancers

DALLAS – November 18, 2011 -- Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world’s largest breast cancer organization, issued the following statement today from Komen president Elizabeth Thompson about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision removing Avastin from the list of approved drugs for the treatment of advanced and metastatic breast cancer:

“We know that this decision was a difficult one for the FDA and respect the length of time they spent deliberating the many issues that impact patients. 

As a patient advocacy organization, we want to ensure that women who are successfully using Avastin today continue to have access to the drug, and that their treatment be covered by third-party payers. 

This decision underscores the need for aggressive research to develop treatments that will allow women to live full, high-quality lives even with advanced and metastatic breast cancers. At the same time, we encourage continued research into biomarkers that will help identify which patients will or will not benefit from certain treatments. 

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has invested $25.5 million to metastatic research in the past five years alone and $685 million to breast cancer research since we opened our doors in 1982.  As a patient advocacy organization, we call on all stakeholders — government, private industry, academia and the nonprofit community — to help develop treatments that are more personalized in nature, hopefully with fewer or measured toxicities, and to make these available to patients as safely and as quickly as possible.”