Can bevacizumab prolong survival for glioblastoma patients through multiple lines of therapy?

Abstract

Glioblastoma has a poor prognosis accompanied by debilitating neurological symptoms and impaired quality of life. Effective treatment strategies are needed, beyond the current standard of care (SOC), to improve outcomes. Glioblastomas are highly vascularized with elevated levels of VEGF, representing an appropriate target for selective therapies. The role of the anti-VEGF agent bevacizumab in newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma is not fully clear at this time. Although bevacizumab has demonstrated improvements in progression-free survival in newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma, there remain challenges in assessing disease progression after antiangiogenic treatment. The bevacizumab mechanism of action suggests a rationale for continuing bevacizumab treatment through multiple lines of therapy, strengthened by longer progression-free and overall survival observed with bevacizumab continuation beyond progression in a Phase III study in metastatic colorectal cancer and in pooled analyses of Phase II trials in glioblastoma. A novel study (randomized, double-blind, Phase IIIb; TAMIGA [MO28347]) aims to evaluate whether continuing bevacizumab plus lomustine (as second-line therapy) and SOC (third line and beyond) improves survival compared with placebo plus lomustine and then placebo plus SOC in patients with glioblastoma who progressed after first-line bevacizumab plus SOC.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01860638.

Keywords: Phase IIIb; VEGF; bevacizumab; clinical trial; glioblastoma; multiple lines; newly diagnosed; progression; recurrent; trials in progress; vascular endothelial growth factor.