Bevacizumab plus chemotherapy for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer

Many patients with ovarian cancer, unfortunately, experience cancer recurrent in significant number.   Gyn Oncologists triage these patients into "platinum sensitive" versus "platinum resistant" patients.   If you received platinum (Carboplatin or Cisplatin) chemo and then your cancer recur in less than 6 months, you are considered platinum resistant.  If your cancer recurs in more than 6 months, you are considered platinum sensitive.   Patients with platinum resistant cancer have poorer prognosis than platinum sensitive cancer. Unfortunately, there are few good treatment options for these women.  

One good news is the results of a phase III trial comparing standard chemotherapy with or without the antiangiogenesis agent bevacizumab (trade name: avastin) in women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer were presented at the 2012 ASCO meeting. Chemotherapy plus bevacizumab significantly improved overall response rate and progression-free survival. Although overall survival was not reported, these results support the use of chemotherapy plus bevacizumab in this group of women with early recurrent ovarian cancer

Reference: Pujade-Lauraine E, Hilpert F, Weber B, et al. AURELIA: A randomized phase III trial evaluating bevacizumab (BEV) plus chemotherapy (CT) for platinum (PT)-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer (OC). J Clin Oncol 30, 2012