Expanding the Clinical Development of Bevacizumab

Learning Objectives After completing this course, the reader will be able to: Describe the clinical development of bevacizumab. Summarize the clinical trials conducted using bevacizumab. Discuss the anticipated role of bevacizumab in cancer treatment and future directions for research. Access and take the CME test online and receive one hour of AMA PRA category 1 credit atCME.TheOncologist.com Bevacizumab (AvastinTM; Genentech, Inc.; South San Francisco, CA) is a recombinant, humanized monoclonal antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor, a key regulator of tumor angiogenesis. Bevacizumab demonstrated potent antitumor activity in preclinical models and has also shown biologic activity and clinical benefit in clinical studies. Notably, a randomized, placebo-controlled phase II trial in renal cell carcinoma demonstrated a significantly longer time to tumor progression with bevacizumab monotherapy. Furthermore, in a phase III trial for untreated advanced colorectal cancer, the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy led to significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival times than chemotherapy alone. The clinical development of bevacizumab has been expanded to include confirmatory phase III trials and exploratory phase II trials in a variety of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Treatment regimens being examined include bevacizumab alone and in combination with conventional chemotherapy, radiation, immune therapy, and biologically targeted agents.