Adding Bevacizumab to Chemo Beneficial in High-Risk Ovarian Cancer

MONDAY, May 12, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The addition of bevacizumab to first-line (1L) chemotherapy offers real-world benefit to patients with epithelial ovarian cancer with high-risk prognostic factors, according to a study published online May 12 in Cancer.

Noting that adding bevacizumab to 1L chemotherapy for stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer significantly improved progression‐free survival in clinical trials, Linda R. Duska, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, and colleagues examined an electronic health record-derived database for outcomes in patients with stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer who initiated 1L chemotherapy ± bevacizumab. The median real‐world time to next treatment and real‐world overall survival were estimated.

The analyses included 1,752 patients, with a median follow-up of 18.5 months. The researchers found that for patients with high-risk prognostic factors (stage IV disease or stage III disease with either visible residual disease or no documentation of surgery), real-world time to next treatment was significantly longer with 1L chemotherapy plus bevacizumab versus chemotherapy alone (13.6 versus 11.7 months). Compared with chemotherapy alone, 1L chemotherapy plus bevacizumab was associated with a trend toward longer median real-world overall survival (31.1 versus 27.4 months). Real-world outcomes did not differ with the addition of bevacizumab for patients without high-risk prognostic factors.

“Results suggested that the real‐world benefit of adding bevacizumab to a 1L chemotherapy regimen was limited to patients with high‐risk prognostic factors, defined as stage IV disease, stage III disease with visible residual disease, or stage III disease with no evidence of surgery,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including GSK, which funded the study.

Abstract/Full Text