Dr. Essel Discusses Long-Term Bevacizumab in Ovarian Cancer

Kathleen Essel, MD, fellow, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, discusses a study on the effects of long-term bevacizumab (Avastin) use in patients with ovarian cancer.

The antiangiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab has shown benefit as a maintenance therapy, and its indication was expanded for use in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent disease as part of a combination regimen with chemotherapy followed by continued use of the angiogenesis inhibitor in December 2016.

The acute side effects of bevacizumab are well characterized, says Essel, but with the findings of the GOG-0213 and OCEANS studies, there is not much data on the long-term adverse events. GOG-0213 combined carboplatin with paclitaxel and bevacizumab, and the OCEANS study used carboplatin with gemcitabine and bevacizumab. Some of the short-term side effects observed in these studies were fatigue, neuropathy, hair loss, nausea, and vomiting. Currently, investigators are aiming to characterize the side effects of long-term bevacizumab use in patients with ovarian cancer in a phase I study.