Current treatment options in oncology
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Curr Treat Options Oncol · Feb 2007
ReviewRole of anti-angiogenesis agents in treating NSCLC: focus on bevacizumab and VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Successful inhibition of angiogenesis with the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab has improved the efficacy seen with standard cytotoxic therapy in NSCLC. The addition of bevacizumab to first-line chemotherapy improved response rate and progression free survival and added 2 months to median overall survival for those patients with advanced stage NSCLC on the treatment arm of E4599. Bevacizumab is now a standard agent to add to frontline carboplatin and paclitaxel for patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC who meet the eligibility criteria from the landmark E4599 trial. ⋯ Despite modest improvements, prognosis continues to be poor for patients with advanced NSCLC. Bevacizumab is a first step into the world of angiogenesis inhibitors for NSCLC and though it only offers a modest survival benefit in a limited patient population, it paves the way for the development of the next generation of anti-angiogenesis inhibitors. We can hope that further improvements in survival will follow.