Third-quarter sales at the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs rose 15 percent to 11.271 billion Swiss francs ($12.07 billion), beating the average analyst forecast of 11.124 billion francs in a Reuters poll.

Sales at the dominant pharmaceutical business beat forecasts, driven by solid growth in its top three cancer medicines, MabThera, Avastin and Herceptin.

This helped offset declines in eye drug Lucentis due to competition from Regeneron'sdrug Eylea, and lower sales of CellCept, a medicine given to organ transplantation patients.

Roche, which kicks off the third-quarter reporting season for major drugmakers, reiterated its guidance for sales to grow in the low-to-mid single digit range at constant exchange rates this year, while core earnings should grow in the high single-digits.

($1 = 0.9341 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Caroline Copley)

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