A retrospective clinical study of bevacizumab combined with gemcibabine or paclitaxel in the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab, a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks angiogenesis by inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor A, was described to be effective in the treatment of recurrent or platinum‑resistance ovarian cancer. The present retrospective study was performed to further evaluate the clinical efficacy and toxicity of bevacizumab in the treatment of Chinese recurrent ovarian cancer patients who had been previously treated by platinum‑based chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the hospital database and finally included 26 recurrent ovarian cancer patients who were treated with bevacizumab combined with gemcibabine or paclitaxel or single agent. All included patients received >3 cycle of bevacizumab treatment. The tumor response, overall survival, and toxicities were documented. RESULTS: Under the treatment of bevacizumab combined with gemcibabine or paclitaxel, 2 complete response (7.7%), 8 partial response (30.8%), 7 stable disease (26.9%) and 9 progression disease (34.6%) was documented with the objective response rate of 38.5% and disease control rate of 65.4%. The median overall survival from the first application of bevacizumab was 15.3 months [Figure 1] for all of the 26 patients. The median overall survival time was 16.2 and 14.0 months for bevacizumab + gemcitabine and bevacizumab + paclitaxel treatment schedule respectively. The overall survival was not different between bevacizumab + gemcitabine and bevacizumab + paclitaxel treatment regimen hazard ratio = 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.32–2, P = 0.64). The hypertension and proteinuria were the major bevacizumab related toxicities. CONCLUSIONS: Bevacizumab combined with gemcibabine or paclitaxel was a promising treatment schedule for platinum‑resistance recurrent ovarian cancer.