Phase I safety and pharmacokinetic study of bevacizumab in Chinese patients with advanced cancer / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>bevacizumab is a humanized recombinant vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) monoclonal antibody, which specifically binds to VEGF and inhibits tumor cell growth, proliferation and metastasis. We aimed to investigate the safety and pharmacokinetics of bevacizumab in Chinese patients with advanced cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-nine Chinese patients with metastatic or relapsed cancers who failed prior therapy were enrolled in this phase I study of bevacizumab. Bevacizumab was infused by a calculated pump at doses from 5 mg/kg to 15 mg/kg in 90 minutes. Patients underwent serial pharmacokinetic evaluations. Patients that received at least one infusion of bevacizumab were included in the safety study.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Thirty-five patients finished all 5 infusions following protocol. One patient withdrew after 3 infusions due to grade 3 proteinuria. Common adverse events possibly related to the study drug were proteinuria (17/39, 43.6%), hypertension (13/39, 33.3%), gingival bleeding (7/39, 17.9%), epistaxis (6/39, 15.4%), pharyngeal inflammation (6/39, 15.4%), fatigue (6/39, 15.4%) and stomatitis (4/39, 10.3%). Bevacizumab pharmacokinetics was linear within the range of 5 mg/kg q2w--10 mg/kg q2w and 15 mg/kg q3w. CL (clearance), Vd (volume of distribution at elimination) and Vss (volume of distribution at steady state) were similar after single and multiple doses at 5, 10 and 15 mg/kg.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Bevacizumab is well tolerated in Chinese patients. No unexpected adverse events were observed. There is no racial difference in the pharmacokinetics.</p>

Efficacy and safety of bevacizumab plus capecitabine for metastatic colorectal cancer / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab plus capecitabine in treating metastatic colorectal cancer(mCRC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eleven patients with mCRC (6 females and 5 males) were enrolled in this study. Bevacizumab was given with 5 mg/kg every two weeks in five patients, 10 mg/kg every two weeks in four patients and 15 mg/kg every three weeks in two patients. All patients received capecitabine 2000 mg/m2 per day for 14 days.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five of 11 patients had partial response and five patients had stable disease and two patients had progressive disease. The disease control rate was 90.9%. The progress-free survival were 4 months and the median overall survival time were 15 months. The adverse events related to bevacizumab were grade 2 hypertension in 3 patients (27.3%) and grade 1 or 2 proteinuria in 4 patients (36.4%). Other adverse events such as mucositis, fatigue, subcutaneous haemorrhage were also observed. No thromboembolism or severe haemorrhage happened. No other grade 3 or 4 adverse events were observed.The adverse events in the combined therapy were hand-foot-syndrome (54.6%), diarrhea (27.3%), and neutropenia (18.2%), mainly due to capecitabine.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The combination of bevacizumab plus capecitabine has definite benefit in patients with mCRC. However,these benefits can not be maintained after the withdrawal of bevacizumab. The adverse drug reactions are well tolerated.</p>