Bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of recurrence or platinum-refractory ovarian cancer: a retrospective study of 37 cases.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer was one of the most diagnostic cancers for women and leading cause of death from gynecologic cancer. Most of the cases were at advanced stage when diagnosed. Platinum-based regimen was considered as the firs-line chemotherapy treatment modality. But most of the cases developed recurrence or resistance to platinum. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the activity and toxicity of bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of recurrence or platinum-refractory ovarian cancer. Totally, 37 ovarian cancer patients with complete data who treated with bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy were reviewed from the databases of Beijing Cancer hospital and included in this retrospective study. All included patients received >1 cycle of bevacizumab based combination therapy with eligible for the efficacy and toxicity assessments. The objective response rate (ORR) and toxicity were recorded and evaluated according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) National Cancer Institute's Common Toxicity Criteria. The ORR and disease control rate were 32.4% and 54.1% respectively by the RECIST criteria and 43.2%, 67.6% by CA125 criteria. The median progression-free survival for the 37 cases was 5.4 months with its range of 2.3-11.2 months. The two complete response patens had longest disease-free survival interval with one for 10.0 months and another for 11.2 months. The total grade III-IV hematologic toxicity and nonhematologic toxicity were 8.1% and 21.6% respectively. With acceptable toxicity and relative well clinical activity, the bevacizumab combined chemotherapy can be a potential treatment modality for the recurrent or platinum-refractory ovarian cancer.