Roche Holding AG's cancer drug Avastin, one of the Swiss pharmaceutical company's best-selling drugs, showed positive results in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.

A late stage trial found that the drug in combination with chemotherapy and use of Avastin, increased the time women live healthily.

"We are greatly encouraged by these results. Women with this disease still have a poor outlook and we are committed to working with the relevant health authorities to make Avastin available to these patients", said Pascal Soriot, Chief Operating Officer of Roche's Pharma Division.

An estimated 230,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, leading cause of cancer death among women around the world and around 140,000 die from the disease annually.

"This is a positive catalyst for Roche and further supports the Avastin franchise, especially welcome after failure of Avastin in the gastric cancer setting", said Silvia Schanz, Analyst at Bank Vontobel.

Bernstein Analyst Jack Scannell said that 2010 would see a slew in more Avastin data.

Two ongoing studies would test if Avastin can prove useful to treat prostate cancer and in early-stage colorectal cancer, as there is a decent chance that the prostate cancer trials would succeed but there are very low expectations for Avastin in colorectal cancer.