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TUESDAY, June 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — The addition of bevacizumab to carboplatin\/pemetrexed is associated with improved overall survival among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Stephen J. Bagley, M.D., from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with NSCLC who received one or more cycle of carboplatin\/pemetrexed \u00b1 bevacizumab as initial systemic therapy for stage IV or metastatic\/recurrent disease. Data were included for 4,724 patients, of whom 58 percent received carboplatin\/pemetrexed and 42 percent received carboplatin\/pemetrexed\/bevacizumab.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that median overall survival was 12.1 and 8.6 months in the group receiving carboplatin\/pemetrexed\/bevacizumab and the group receiving carboplatin\/pemetrexed, respectively. In a multivariate model, bevacizumab use remained associated with improved overall survival (hazard ratio, 0.80). The effect of bevacizumab was unchanged in a secondary analysis involving 539 patients at a single academic institution and additional adjustment for presence of brain metastases, hemoptysis, and anticoagulation (hazard ratio, 0.75).<\/p>\n
“It is unlikely that a randomized controlled trial to address this question will ever be performed due to the size and cost that such a trial would entail,” the authors write. “Results of our real-world study provide essential information that can be incorporated into the complex clinical decision-making necessary for this large population of patients with cancer.”<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to Roche\/Genentech, the manufacturer of bevacizumab, and Eli Lilly.<\/p>\n