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Bevacizumab in Combination With Oxaliplatin-Based Chemotherapy As First-Line Therapy in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Randomized Phase III Study

Leonard B. Saltz, Stephen Clarke, Eduardo Díaz-Rubio, Werner Scheithauer, Arie Figer, Ralph Wong, Sheryl Koski, Mikhail Lichinitser, Tsai-Shen Yang, Fernando Rivera, Felix Couture, Florin Sirzén, Jim Cassidy

From the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; University of Sydney and Sydney Cancer Centre, Sydney, Australia; Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid; Hospital Marques de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain; Vienna University Medical School, Vienna, Austria; Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; Cancer Care Manitoba, St Boniface General Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta; CHUQ L'Hotel-Dieu De Quebec, Quebec, Canada; Russian Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russian Federation; Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Tapei, Taiwan; F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland; and the Glasgow University, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Corresponding author: Leonard B. Saltz, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, Room H-917, New York, NY 10021; e-mail: saltzl{at}mskcc.org

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab when added to first-line oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy (either capecitabine plus oxaliplatin [XELOX] or fluorouracil/folinic acid plus oxaliplatin [FOLFOX-4]) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC).

Patients and Methods: Patients with MCRC were randomly assigned, in a 2 x 2 factorial design, to XELOX versus FOLFOX-4, and then to bevacizumab versus placebo. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS).

Results: A total of 1,401 patients were randomly assigned in this 2 x 2 analysis. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 9.4 months in the bevacizumab group and 8.0 months in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.83; 97.5% CI, 0.72 to 0.95; P = .0023). Median overall survival was 21.3 months in the bevacizumab group and 19.9 months in the placebo group (HR, 0.89; 97.5% CI, 0.76 to 1.03; P = .077). Response rates were similar in both arms. Analysis of treatment withdrawals showed that, despite protocol allowance of treatment continuation until disease progression, only 29% and 47% of bevacizumab and placebo recipients, respectively, were treated until progression. The toxicity profile of bevacizumab was consistent with that documented in previous trials.

Conclusion: The addition of bevacizumab to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy significantly improved PFS in this first-line trial in patients with MCRC. Overall survival differences did not reach statistical significance, and response rate was not improved by the addition of bevacizumab. Treatment continuation until disease progression may be necessary in order to optimize the contribution of bevacizumab to therapy.

Supported by Roche.

Presented in part at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, Orlando, FL, January 19-21, 2007; and the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Chicago, IL, June 1-5, 2007.

Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Cassidy, S. Clarke, E. Diaz-Rubio, W. Scheithauer, A. Figer, R. Wong, S. Koski, M. Lichinitser, T.-S. Yang, F. Rivera, et al. Randomized Phase III Study of Capecitabine Plus Oxaliplatin Compared With Fluorouracil/Folinic Acid Plus Oxaliplatin As First-Line Therapy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer J. Clin. Oncol., April 20, 2008; 26(12): 2006 - 2012. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]