Embargo expired: 2/14/2013 5:00 PM EST Source Newsroom: Mayo
Clinic Newswise — JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The drug bevacizumab,
also known by the trade name Avastin, shrinks tumors briefly in
patients with an aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma
multiforme, but then they often grow again and spread throughout
the brain for reasons no one previously has understood. Now,
Mayo Clinic researchers have found out why this happens. They
have also discovered that pairing Avastin with another cancer
drug, dasatinib, can stop that lethal spread. Dasatinib is
approved for use in several blood cancers. The findings, based
on an animal study, are detailed in the Feb. 14 online issue of
PLOS ONE. Based on those results, Mayo Clinic has already
conducted a phase I clinical trial testing a combination of
bevacizumab and dasatinib in glioblastoma patients whose other
therapies failed. Mayo is now carrying out a randomized phase II
study of 100 patients through Alliance for Clinical Trials in
Oncology, a clinical trials net