I was talking with a good friend of mine who works for 23 and me (a genetic testing site where you spit into a tube and they anaylze your DNA). Avastin is a chemotherapeutic drug which was used to treat metastatic breast cancer for a period of time. It was found to be effective for some patients, but was pulled because of serious side effects for others.
23 and me wants to find out if there is a way to predict via genetics which women are responders or which women will get side effects. They have joined forces with AVON foundation for women, breastcancer.org and other groups to do this study.
The 23 and me testing for women entering the study will be free.
Who qualifies?
- Diagnosed with breast cancer by a doctor
- Currently have stage IV metastatic breast cancer or recurrent breast cancer
- Treated with Avatin at any point in 2010 or 2011 (NOT 2012)
- Live in US
- Age 18 or older.
To enroll or get more information, click the link here.
Avastin is a tumor-starving (or anti-angiogenic) therapy. The purpose of Avastin is to block a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. Normal cells produce VEGF, but some cancer cells overproduce VEGF. Blocking VEGF may prevent the growth of new blood vessels that feed tumors