According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence report, Avastin is not an economical treatment for advanced bowel cancer.

It is estimated that the NHS would require approximately £135 million per year to treat around 6,500 people at £20,800 per individual.

The government is now planning to set aside about £50 million as Cancer Drugs Fund in order to bear the expenses of these costly treatments.

The experts of bowel cancer in the United Kingdom say that they are extremely concerned about the impact of Avastin drug on both patient care and medical research.

Bowel cancer is considered the third most common type of cancer in the UK. Each year, as many as 35,000 people get affected by this cancer, meaning one patient every 15 minutes comes to doctor for consultation.

Avastin is considered one of the first new-generation `targeted' cancer drugs. It doesn't use the `scatter-gun approach' of chemotherapy to kill both the healthy and cancerous cells. The drug mainly concentrates on the protein that is involved in supplying tumours with blood, and interferes with its working.

The main advantage of this drug is that it is well tolerated by patients, with only minimal side effects like rising of blood pressure in some people.