Bevacizumab Safe for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Asymptomatic Brain Metastases

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, researchers have found that bevacizumab plus first-line paclitaxel and carboplatin may be safe and effective for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and asymptomatic, untreated brain metastases.

For the prospective, phase 2 study, researchers sought to investigate the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab in chemotherapy-naive or pretreated patients with NSCLC and asymptomatic, untreated brain metastases. 

Researchers assigned 67 patients with stage IV non-squamous NSCLC and asymptomatic brain metastases to receive first-line bevacizumab 15mg/kg IV plus carboplatin AUC 6 and paclitaxel 200mg/m2 IV every 3 weeks, and 24 patients to receive second-line bevacizumab 15mg/kg IV plus erlotinib 150mg/day orally until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Due to low enrollment in the second group, results were exploratory in that group only. Results showed that in the first-line bevacizumab group, the 6-month progression-free survival rate was 56.5% and the median progression-free survival was 6.7 months (95% CI: 5.7 - 7.1).

The median overall survival was 16.0 months and the objective response rate was 62.7%. The findings suggest that first-line bevacizumab plus paclitaxel and carboplatin may be safe and effective for patients with NSCLC and asymptomatic, untreated brain metastases.