Bevacizumab Does Not Improve Survival in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma

March 2014, Vol 5, No 2
Jayson Slotnik, JD, MPH
Managing Partner
Health Policy Strategies, Inc.
Bethesda, MD

In early clinical studies, bevacizumab (Avastin) showed clinical activity in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. A new randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigated whether the use of bevacizumab would improve the OS and PFS of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (Gilbert MR, et al. N Engl J Med. 2014;370:699-708).

A total of 637 patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma were randomized to receive bevacizumab or placebo. All patients received temozolomide until the completion of radiotherapy. At week 4 of radiotherapy, the patients received either intravenous bevacizumab 10 mg/kg or placebo every 2 weeks until disease progression, severe AEs, or the completion of adjuvant therapy. Four weeks after completing radiotherapy, the patients received maintenance treatment with temozolomide.

After a median follow-up of almost 21 months, 208 patients were evaluable for response. The median OS was 15.7 months in the bevacizumab group and 16.1 months in the placebo group. Although PFS was longer in the bevacizumab group, it did not reach statistical significance.

As can be expected, the incidence of serious neutropenia and thrombocytopenia was more common in the bevacizumab group than in the placebo group. Serious AEs during maintenance treatment were more frequent in the bevacizumab group.

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