Correction regarding dose of Avastin in an old article This correction just came out. In this article about Avastin for GBMs from 2008, they used the wrong units for the dosage calculation. The correct units are mg per kilogram, not the mg per square meter of body surface area that they originally reported. The difference is huge. For a typical 200 pound 6' tall patient, at 5mg per square meter, the incorrect dose would be about 10mg of Avastin. Using the correct formula, 5mg per kg, it would be about 450 mg. Note that the correct dose of Avastin is not really known. Some use 5mg per kg, some 10mg per kg and some higher doses.
FDA Grants Genentech’s Avastin Full Approval for Most Aggressive Form of Brain Cancer This is great news. I was worried that they would remove the approval based on the study mentioned. The study showed "no significant increase in overall survival". That study did not take into account how Avastin is used in the real world. In the real world it is used in combination with many other things and is a very useful drug. Our virtual trial is tracking the combinations. One that looks exceptionally good (although only 4 patients used the combination) is Avastin plus Optune. 2 of the 4 patients died, but they survived an average of 30 months. The other 2 are alive - one for 22 months so far and the other an amazing over 8 years.
