Anti-VEGF Therapy with Bevacizumab--limited cardiovascular toxicity

This analysis was conducted to evaluate cardiovascular toxicity of commonly used anti-VEGF therapeutic agent, bevacizumab, in treating patients with cancer.

Clinical studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab-based regimens on response and safety for patients with cancer were identified using a predefined search strategy, allowing cardiovascular toxicity and other side effects of treatment to be estimated.

In bevacizumab based regimens, 4 clinical studies including 282 patients with advanced cancer (including gliomas, cervical, breast and ovarian cancer) were considered eligible for inclusion. These bevacizumab-based regimens included docetaxel, irinitecan and carboplatin. Systematic analysis suggested that, of 282 patients treated by bevacizumab based regimens, hypertension and thrombo-embolism occurred in 2.5% (7/282), while only 3 patients reported cardiovascular events (1.1%). No treatment related death occurred in bevacizumab based treatment.

This systemic analysis suggests that bevacizumab based regimens are associated with reasonable and accepted cardiovascular toxicity when treating patients with gliomas, cervical, breast and ovarian cancer.