A Retrospective Evaluation of Bevacizumab Treatment in Patients with Progressive Malignant Glioma in Northern Sweden

Abstract

Background/aim: Overall survival for glioblastoma patients is short. Standard treatment is surgery followed by radiochemotherapy and adjuvant temozolomide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome for all patients with progressive disease treated with bevacizumab-based treatment combinations in the northern region of Sweden.

Patients and methods: This was a single-center retrospective analysis after bevacizumab-based second-line treatment for malignant glioma. All patients treated with bevacizumab, between 2007 and 2011 in our Center were retrospectively evaluated.

Results: Progression-free survival after the start of bevacizumab-based treatment was 20 weeks and overall survival was 31 weeks. Treatment was well tolerated, but 9% of patients (n=6) suffered from serious adverse events. In 68% of patients, a ≥25% decrease in contrast enhancement was seen at best response.

Conclusion: Results from this retrospective study are comparable with earlier phase-II studies and motivate randomized trials of bevacizumab-based treatment in the second-line setting.

Keywords: Malignant glioma; anti-angionenesis treatment; bevacizumab.