A Phase 3 French study, which will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)’s annual meeting at the end of May, demonstrated improved survival rates for those patients who received bevacizumab in addition to the current standard chemotherapy regimen of pemetrexed/cisplatin. Bevacizumab (Avastin® Genentech, Inc.) is an antibody that blocks angiogenesis (blood vessel growth), and it is already routinely used to treat many other cancers, including lung cancer and colon cancer.
“The mesothelioma community has been waiting for this kind of news for a long time—it is the first positive phase III trial in mesothelioma since the original study of pemetrexed/cisplatin over 10 years ago,” said Dr. Lee M. Krug of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and chair of the board of directors of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.
“The addition of bevacizumab has the potential to become a new standard of care for first-line therapy in this disease,” he added.
The study, conducted between 2008 and 2014, included 448 patients treated in 73 centers. The patients were randomized into two arms– one received standard chemotherapy (pemetrexed and cisplatin) and the other received standard chemotherapy plus bevacizumab. Overall survival was significantly longer in the experimental arm (median: 18.8 months vs. 16.1 months). The study concluded that adding bevacizumab in addition to pemetrexed/cisplatin provides a significantly longer survival in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, with acceptable toxicity, making this triplet a new treatment paradigm.