Cancer-drug ruling may change standards

Boston Globe, February 22, 2008

A decision expected on FDA approval for Genentech's Avastin cancer drug could have ramifications for all companies developing cancer medicines. The FDA has traditionally only approved cancer drugs that extended the lifespan of patients, but in recent years companies have studied alternate measures of a drug's effectiveness. Genentech made its case for FDA's approval of Avastin using by measuring effectiveness based on tumor growth, not patient survival.