Sanofi-aventis, the world's third largest pharmaceutical company, has announced results of three studies evaluating the performance of its platinum compound Eloxatin in use with various gastrointestinal tumours.

The drug, which is injected into patients, was tested in relation to patients with colorectal, pancreatic and gastric cancers.

The company said that Eloxatin-based chemotherapy combined with bevacizumab did create a significant improvement in overall survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer, according to its TREE-2 study.

"The results of this study demonstrate for the first time that median survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer can extend beyond two years," said Howard Hochster, principal investigator and professor at the New York University School of Medicine.

"Oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy is already the standard treatment for these patients, and now the TREE-2 results show that adding bevacizumab to this regimen delivers increased overall survival for these patients."

Eloxatin, which is the marketing name for oxaliplatin, the first drug to reach commercialisation that treats tumours which do not respond to or which become resistant to cisplatin and carboplatin.

Ÿ Adfero Ltd