The use of bevacizumab in the modern era of targeted therapy for ovarian cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objectives: The optimal systemic therapy strategy for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess oncologic outcomes and toxicity of bevacizumab combination treatment in advanced EOC.

Methods: We conducted an electronic search of all phase 2 and 3 clinical trials involving bevacizumab combination therapy in advanced-stage EOC between 2010 and March 2020, using Embase, Medline, Epub Ahead of Print, Cochrane for clinical trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science and clinicaltrials.gov databases. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and their hazard ratios (HR) when available were extracted. Pooled HR were calculated for each efficacy endpoint in the meta-analysis using inverse variance weighted method. Bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias I (ROB1) tool for randomized controlled trials.

Results: Thirty-five studies were included in the qualitative analysis and eight studies in the quantitative synthesis. In the first-line setting, bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy revealed a significant improvement in PFS (pooled HR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.65-0.81) when compared to chemotherapy alone but no significant OS benefit (pooled HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.72-1.06). In the recurrent setting, bevacizumab combinations showed significant PFS (pooled HR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.47-0.58) and OS benefits (pooled HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.79-0.99) compared with non-bevacizumab regimens. Rate of bowel perforation was low at 1.24% (range 0-4.2%).

Conclusions: Bevacizumab-containing regimens are associated with significant PFS benefit in advanced and recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. While the difference in OS did not reach statistical significance in the first-line setting, bevacizumab was associated with improved survival in the recurrent setting.

Keywords: Bevacizumab; Meta-analysis; Ovarian cancer; Systematic review; Targeted therapy.