A new drug by the Roche Group has been approved by the FDA to battle aggressive, recurring and late-stage cervical cancer.

The pharmaceutical company, Roche Group, calls Avastin "tumor-starving (anti-angiogenic) therapy".

The drug Avastin, used alongside chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel and cisplatin, is meant to combine with and target the blood vessels in which cancer cells thrive. 

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Unlike chemotherapy which attacks cells, with no biases on whether they are healthy or not, Avastin works by blocking the blood supply which feeds the tumor and allows it to thrive.

Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, shared that Avastin is "the first biologic agent approved for patients with late-stage cervical cancer".

Because Avastin was listed in the US FDA's priority review program and due to the urgency and pressure related to its release, the drug was approved in less than four months.

The said approval was based on a clinical study which consisted of tests done on 452 patients with aggressive, recurring and late-stage cervical cancer.

The patients involved with the study were arbitrarily divided between two groups - those who were given either paclitaxel or cisplatin with or without Avastin and, those who took paclitaxel and topotecan with or withour Avastin.

What the study found was those who took Avastin along with chemotherapy had an overall survival of up to 16.8 months, versus the overall survival of 12.9 months for those who just received chemotherapy.

Common side effects of the drug include, weight loss, headaches, urinary tract infections, hypertension and hyperglycemia, loss of appetite and nausea among others.

According to the National Cancer Institute, around 12,360 women in American women will be diagnosed with the disease in 2014. Almost 4,020 of them will pass away from the cancer this year.

Cervical cancer usually occurs when a woman contracts the human papillomavirus or HPV through sexual intercourse.