Bevacizumab delayed progression of epithelial ovarian cancer

The use of bevacizumab during and after carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy prolonged progression free survival (meaning delay in progression) in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer by approximately 4 months, according to trial data published in the Dec. 29 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (the gold standard Journal for physicians).

In a double blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial (the most accurate trials that doctors pay attention to), 1,873 patients were enrolled from 336 sites in the United States, Canada, South Korea and Japan. Researchers randomly assigned eligible patients — eligibility determined as previously untreated or incompletely resectable stage III or any stage IV ovarian cancer.

At the conclusion of the study, patients who received bevacizumab with chemotherapy throughout demonstrated a longer median of progression free survival (14.1 months) compared with patients in the control group (10.3 months) and the bevacizumab/placebo group (11.2 months).

This is certainly an option which may be entertained in patients with metastatic ovarian cancer.

Tony Talebi, MD