The Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Breast Cancer, published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), have been updated to affirm the existing recommendation regarding the use of bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
As part of NCCN’s most current guidelines on management strategies for breast cancer, the update affirmed the existing recommendation of bevacizumab in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol) as an appropriate therapeutic option for metastatic breast cancer. This affirmation is supported by the 2A evidence designation, which means that it is based on lower level evidence and uniform agreement of the panel as to its appropriateness.
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For preferred agents with bevacizumab, the related footnote was revised to state the following: “Randomized clinical trials in metastatic breast cancer document that the addition of bevacizumab to some first or second line chemotherapy agents modestly improves time to progression and response rates but does not improve overall survival. The time to progression impact may vary among cytotoxic agents and appears greatest with bevacizumab in combination with weekly paclitaxel.”
NCCN Guidelines are developed and updated on a continual basis through an evidence-based process with explicit review of the scientific evidence integrated with expert judgment by multidisciplinary panels of expert physicians from NCCN member institutions. ■
