Prospective study of bevacizumab plus temozolomide in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors
Journal of Clinical Oncology,
Chan JA et al. – Temozolomide and bevacizumab can be safely administered together in patients with advanced NETs, and the combination regimen appears promising for patients with pancreatic NETs.
Methods- Thirty-four patients (56% with carcinoid, 44% with pancreatic NETs) were treated with temozolomide 150 mg/m2 orally per day on days 1 through 7 and days 15 through 21, together with bevacizumab at a dose of 5 mg/kg per day intravenously on days 1 and 15 of each 28-day cycle.
- All patients received prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii and varicella zoster.
- Patients were followed for toxicity, biochemical and radiologic response, and survival.
- The combination of temozolomide and bevacizumab was associated with anticipated grade 3 to 4 toxicities, including lymphopenia (53%) and thrombocytopenia (18%).
- Although the overall radiographic response rate was 15% (five of 34), response rates differed between patients with pancreatic NETs (33%; five of 15) and those with carcinoid tumors (zero of 19).
- The median progression-free survival was 11.0 months (14.3 months for pancreatic NETs v 7.3 months for carcinoid tumors).
- The median overall survival was 33.3 months (41.7 months for pancreatic NETs v 18.8 months for carcinoid tumors).
