Marketing Approval of cancer drug Avastin meant for treating breast cancer might be withdrawn after on Tuesday a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended that the agency should withdraw its marketing approval. This was concluded following no significant benefits being shown by new trials from the drug.

If approval is halted then it will certainly not affect Avastin’s marketing for other kinds of cancer but the manufacturer would no longer be able to promote it for treating breast cancer.

In February 2008 an accelerated approval was issued by the agency of the drug for breast cancer. Under this accelerated approval, the drug is quickly approved for treating the life-threatening condition but before this to demonstrate efficacy of the drug the manufacturer of the drug needs to conduct additional clinical trials.

A clinical trial in which Avastin, known generically as bevacizumab, served as a base of the initial approval. In this trail Avastin was combined with the breast cancer drug paclitaxel to treat the condition.

It was noted that no significant increase was seen in the overall survival. Recent studies could not confirm the initial findings.

The drug's manufacturer, Roche subsidiary Genentech, said, Avastin should continue to be an option  for patients with this incurable disease.