Avzivi

Avzivi is a cancer medicine used in combination with other cancer medicines to treat adults with the following types of cancer: - cancer of the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine) that is metastatic (has spread to other parts of the body), in combination with chemotherapy medicines that include a ‘fluoropyrimidine’; - metastatic breast cancer, in combination with paclitaxel or capecitabine; - advanced, metastatic or recurrent (cancer that has come back) non-small cell lung cancer that cannot be removed by surgery, in patients whose cancer cells are not mainly of the squamous type, where it is given with platinum-based chemotherapy; - advanced, metastatic or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer that cannot be removed by surgery, in patients whose cancer cells have a certain change (‘activating mutations’) in the gene for a protein called EGFR, where it is given in combination with erlotinib; - advanced or metastatic kidney cancer, in combination with interferon alfa-2a; - epithelial cancer of the ovary, cancer of the fallopian tube (that connect the ovaries to the womb) or the peritoneum (the membrane lining the abdomen). Avzivi is used in combination with certain chemotherapy medicines in newly diagnosed patients when the cancer is advanced, or in previously treated patients whose cancer has come back; - cancer of the cervix (the neck of the womb) that is persistent, recurrent or metastatic. Avzivi is given in combination with paclitaxel and either platinum-based medicine cisplatin or, if it cannot be used, another chemotherapy medicine, topotecan. Avzivi contains the active substance bevacizumab and is a biological medicine. It is a ‘biosimilar medicine’; this means that Avzivi is highly similar to another biological medicine (the ‘reference medicine’) that is already authorised in the EU. The reference medicine for Avzivi is Avastin. For more information on biosimilar medicines, see [Biosimilar medicines: Overview](/human-regulatory/overview/biosimilar-medicines).