open access: PLOS ONE: The Impact of Bevacizumab (Avastin) on Survival in Metastatic Solid Tumors - A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Blogger's Note: discusses are wide variety of cancers eg. breast, colorectal, lung

PLOS ONE: The Impact of Bevacizumab (Avastin) on Survival in Metastatic Solid Tumors - A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review


"..We included all randomized controlled trials that compared the addition of bevacizumab to various chemotherapy protocols without Bevacizumab in adult patients with metastatic cancer in the first and second line setting seperately. We excluded brain tumors due to the different drug delivery through the blood brain barrier and due to its role in reducing edema around the tumor [56]. We also excluded ovarian cancer as the trials included metastatic and non metastatic disease. We excluded maintenance therapy trials and phase II non randomized and phase IV trials. Trials in which the primary outcome measure of OS was not reported were included if all other inclusion criteria were met. Trials assessing toxicity alone were excluded....

 Conclusion
In conclusion, our results suggest that adding Bevacizumab to chemotherapy results in a small but significant effect on OS and a significant PFS advantage in the advanced solid tumors included in this analysis.