Drug lacks benefits, but side effects are 'life-threatening': commissioner
(NEWSER) - The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its approval of Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer, long the subject of controversy. The agency’s commissioner said the drug didn't help patients but could hurt them, the New York Times reports. “This was a difficult decision,” says Dr. Margaret Hamburg in a statement. But studies have made it “clear that women who take Avastin for metastatic breast cancer risk potentially life-threatening side effects without proof that the use of Avastin will provide a benefit.” More»