UPDATE 1-Roche pushes late-comer Tecentriq as new liver cancer option

Roche’s Tecentriq mixed with Avastin helped liver cancer patients live longer, a boost to the Swiss drugmaker’s strategy of expanding its late-to-the-game immunotherapy into niche areas not yet dominated by rivals. Roche said on Monday it will submit overall and progression-free survival data in hepatocellular carcinoma to U.S., European and Chinese regulators in hopes of a speedy approval. The combination is “the first treatment in more than a decade to improve overall survival in people with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy”, said Levi Garraway, Roche’s new chief medical officer, without disclosing the specific survival benefit for Tecentriq and Avastin.