A Drug That Starves Tumors

When the FDA approved Genentech's colorectal cancer drug Avastin last week, it also validated a cancer-fighting strategy proposed more than 30 years ago. Avastin is the first in what researchers hope will be a whole new class of drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors, which attack tumors by thwarting their ability to create blood vessels thus starving cancer cells of oxygen and nutrients. In trials, Avastin has been shown to give patients, on average, an additional five months of life. Cost of a 10-month course of treatment: about $50,000.