Avastin

[SimplyStar]

Avastin® Effective for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
Data from two Phase II studies suggest that Avastin® (bevacizumab) is effective and reasonably well tolerated for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer. The details of these studies appeared in the November 20, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Avastin is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF appears to play an important role in tumor angiogenesis, and blocking this activity should have an anti-tumor effect. Clinical trials of Avastin have shown activity in a variety of tumors, especially when combined with other agents. However, there have been only three reports of treatment of ovarian cancer with Avastin alone or in combination and these reports involved only a small number of patients (see related news).

A Phase II trial carried out by the Gynecologic Oncology study Group evaluated Avastin in 62 patients with recurrent or refractory ovarian cancer.[1] Two-thirds of patients had received two prior treatment regimens. Forty-two percent of patients were classified as platinum-resistant. All patients were treated with Avastin as a single agent for 21 days.

21% of patients experienced a complete or partial response.
The median duration of response was 10 months.
40% of patients survived at least six months without progression.
Median progression-free survival was 4.7 months.
Median overall survival was 17 months.
Prior responses to chemotherapy, age of the patient, number of prior chemotherapy regimens, or their ability to perform tasks of daily living were not associated with outcomes with treatment with Avastin in terms of cancer progression or death.

The second study involved 44 patients with ovarian cancer who had received one to three prior treatment regimens.[2] Eighty-four percent of these patients were deemed to be platinum-resistant.

Partial responses were observed in 16%.
Median progression-free survival was 4.4 months
Median survival was 10.7 months.
These researchers concluded that Avastin appears to provide anticancer activity and is generally well tolerated for patients with ovarian cancer who have received prior therapy including those who were platinum-resistant. Side effects included hypertension, GI perforation, bleeding and wound healing complications.

Comments: The data from these two studies add significantly to the information available about response rates to Avastin in women with recurrent ovarian cancer.

[medresc]

They left out the fact that the Avastin trial for ovaca was discontinued due to perforations of the bowel!  I believe the thought process of that was the ovca patients who went on the Avastin trial were so heavily pre-treated with other chemos the lining was so thin, Avastin was a bad choice.  It would probablly be a good choice as part of initial chemo regimen especially a three chemo one (Platinum based drug, taxane based drug, VGEF blocking drug like Avastin).  Think about it...combining all three would attack the cancer in three seperate ways (yes yes the side effects would be horrible but...).  In-fact they *are* thinking about this three drug cocktail for first line chemo.

[crecco]

My onc has told me that the next drug we will try will be avastin with taxotere.