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Current DateTime: 12:10:54 11 Nov 2009
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Current DateTime: 12:10:55 11 Nov 2009
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Cancer Drug Avastin May Help People Hear Better: Report
By: Mike Huckman, Reporter | 08 Jul 2009 | 05:30 PM ET
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A cancer drug may help people hear better.

That's the unusual finding of a very small study being published in the prestigious "New England Journal of Medicine."

Harvard researchers tested Roche and Genentech's Avastin on patients who have a rare, genetic and potentially fatal condition that causes noncancerous tumors to form around a nerve in the brain that connects to the inner ear. As a result, many patients lose their hearing at an early age.

But when seven people with neurofibromatosis-Type 2 were given the intravenous Avastin infusion every two weeks for about a year, some of the tumors shrank and, as a result, a handful of the patients saw dramatic improvements in their hearing.

Two of them regained "useful hearing" and were able to go back to work or school. And two others were able to read lips or converse better. Three of the patients, for various reasons, did not hear better.

Neurofibromatosis-Type 2 occurs in an estimated one in 50,000 to 120,000 births.

Genentech did not pay for the study.

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