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MONDAY, Feb. 5, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For patients with severe hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT)-related bleeding, intravenous bevacizumab is effective, according to a study published in the February issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Vivek N. Iyer, M.D., M.P.H., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues studied 34 patients treated with intravenous bevacizumab for severe HHT-related bleeding. Intravenous bevacizumab was administered using a standardized protocol.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that anemia was related to severe epistaxis, severe gastrointestinal bleeding, or both (44, 12, and 44 percent, respectively), with a median baseline hemoglobin level of 9.1 g\/dL. Eighty-two percent of the patients had had red blood cell (RBC) transfusions administered. Sixteen of these 28 patients were RBC-transfusion-dependent and had received a median of 75 transfusions before initiation of bevacizumab. Patients were followed for a median of 17.6 months from the start of bevacizumab treatment. After completion of the initial bevacizumab treatment cycle, there was a significant reduction in epistaxis severity scores and RBC transfusion requirements. In four patients, new-onset or worsened hypertension was noted, with hypertensive urgency with a temporary decline in renal function reported in one patient.<\/p>\n
“Intravenous bevacizumab is an effective treatment option for patients with severe anemia related to epistaxis and\/or gastrointestinal bleeding,” the authors write. “Further studies are needed to establish a dose-response relationship as well as clinical, genetic, and biomarker predictors of response.”<\/p>\n
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