Combining Avastin (bevacizumab) with standard chemotherapy and radiation is safe and could extend the lives of people living with advanced nasopharyngeal cancer, according to a new study (Lancet Oncology, December 15, 2011).
The drug may be effective in preventing the spread of this disease, the most common cause of oral cancer deaths.
Nancy Y. Lee, MD, a radiation oncologist from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues conducted the phase II trial, which explored adding Avastin to chemoradiation, the standard treatment for nasopharyneal cancer.
While intensity-modulated radiotherapy can control tumor growth in 90% of patients, nasopharyngeal cancer has the highest rate of metastasis of all head and neck cancers, the researchers noted. About 30% of patients with this type of cancer have cancer in other areas within four to five years after their original diagnosis.
Avastin improves treatment and prolongs life for patients with a number of different advanced cancers, including colorectal, kidney, and lung cancers, according to the study authors. It works by blocking the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A), something seen in nearly two-thirds of nasopharyngeal cancers and an indicator of poor outlook, the researchers noted.
This study involved 46 patients with advanced nasopharyneal carcinoma from 19 centers in North America and Hong Kong. The patients had not yet undergone any treatment, and Avastin was added to the standard regimens of chemotherapy.
Combining the therapies saw significant improvements, the authors reported. More than 90% of patients survived for two years without distant metastasis, and the disease did not worsen in 75% of patients.
Adding Avastin did not seriously increase treatment toxicity and didn't interfere with patient compliance, as compared with standard chemoradiotherapy, the researchers wrote.
Additional research is needed to identify patients at greatest risk of distant metastasis who could benefit from the combination therapy, they concluded.
