(HealthDay News) — Adjuvant bevacizumab increases overall survival in cervical cancer and improves progression-free survival in glioblastoma, according to three studies published in the Feb. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Krishnansu S. Tewari, M.D., from the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, and colleagues randomized 452 patients with recurrent, persistent, or metastatic cervical cancer to chemotherapy (cisplatin plus paclitaxel or topotecan plus paclitaxel) with or without bevacizumab. Using data for the two chemotherapy regimens combined, the researchers found that the addition of bevacizumab correlated with increased overall survival (17.0 versus 13.3 months; hazard ratio for death, 0.71) and higher response rates (48 versus 36 percent; P = 0.008).
Mark R. Gilbert, M.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues randomized 637 patients with centrally confirmed, newly diagnosed glioblastoma who were treated with radiotherapy and daily temozolomide to bevacizumab or placebo during week four of radiation. The researchers found that the duration of overall survival was not significantly different between the groups, but progression-free survival was longer in the bevacizumab group (10.7 versus 7.3 months; hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.79). In a third study, Olivier L. Chinot, M.D., from Aix-Marseille University in France, and colleagues found that for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma randomly allocated to intravenous bevacizumab (458 patients) or placebo (463 patients) in addition to radiotherapy and oral temozolomide, progression-free survival was longer in the bevacizumab group (10.6 versus 6.2 months; hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.64).
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“Improved progression-free survival and maintenance of baseline quality of life and performance status were observed with bevacizumab,” Chinot and colleagues write.
The Gilbert study was partially funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Genentech, the manufacturer of bevacizumab; the Chinot study was funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche.
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