Confounding initial expectation, in what was a keenly watched melanoma study, Roche’s Avastin failed to make the goal, even though there was an encouraging trend that suggested patients given Avastin together with chemotherapy for difficult-to-treat skin cancer showed a meaningful improvement in overall survival, which raised hopes of a breakthrough.

However, a last-minute review of the clinical data saw the researchers saying the Phase II study had failed to prove Avastin extended the life of melanoma patients without the disease progressing. As well, it also failed to show any significant increase in overall survival.

Despite the initial disappointment, Avastin’s principal investigator Steven O’Day says the data collected on the drug was ‘very encouraging and warrant continued investigation’, as the 214-patient study found the median overall survival was 12.3-months against 9.2-months in the control arm, with a 19% likelihood this result happened by chance.

Melanoma, or skin cancer afflicts about 160,000 people globally each year, typically starting off as an abnormal mole on the skin, which is easily cured if caught and removed early. However, if it spreads to the liver, lungs or other parts of the body, it is particularly deadly.

The results of an early-stage study on a second drug called PLX4032 were also presented by Roche, confirming earlier findings that this experimental drug caused a significant shrinking of tumours, including delaying tumour progression in patients with tumours that harboured a cancer-causing mutation of a certain gene called BRAF.

Roche is developing the drug jointly with Plexxikon Inc., Berkeley, Calif., a bio-technology company it discovered.