On Tuesday, Genentech Subsidiary, said that Roche’s Avastin plus Xeloda or 5-FU and Cisplatin chemotherapy, failed to meet its goal of prolonging the lives of patients suffering from advanced stomach cancer.

Last April, in another study, Avastin did not fulfill its main target of preventing colon cancer from coming back in patients, even after surgical removal of the cancer in initial stage.

That was just after Roche agreed to pay $46.8 billion for the shares that it did not own of Genetech, the biotech that developed Avastin.

On the stomach-cancer trial, Roche commented that the drug did not extend overall survival in patients treated with the drug in combination with chemotherapy when compared with the same chemotherapy treatment plus a placebo. But the drug maker added that no new safety issues were raised in the trial and that work on Avastin would continue.

Roche, the Basel health-care giant, said it was disheartened with the outcome since treatment options for stomach cancer are limited. And that it would share these results with the medical community. The results, however, will not affect Avastin's approved use as a first- or second-line treatment for colon and rectal cancer.

Avastin has also been approved to treat advanced colorectal, breast, lung, and kidney cancer.