Patients with metastatic stomach or esophageal cancers driven by a mutated HER2 gene had markedly improved response rates and survival when Avastin (bevacizumab) was added to a combination of capecitabine and oxaliplatin chemotherapy and Herceptin (trastuzumab).
In 1999, Richard Pazdur, a GI oncologist at MD Anderson, saw an FDA recruitment ad in The New England Journal of Medicine. The agency was looking for a director of the FDA Division of Oncology Drug Products.
