Phase III Trial Confirms Benefit of Adding Bevacizumab to Chemotherapy in Chinese Patients With Advanced NSCLC
In a phase III BEYOND trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhou et al found that the addition of bevacizumab to carboplatin-paclitaxel improved progression-free and overall survival in Chinese patients with locally advanced, metastatic, or recurrent advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial was conducted in a Chinese population to confirm the benefit observed with this first-line treatment in globally conducted studies.
Study Details
In this double-blind trial, 276 patients were randomly assigned to receive carboplatin (AUC = 6) and paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) on day 1 of 3-week cycles for up to six cycles plus placebo (n = 138) or bevacizumab (15 mg/kg) on day 1 of each cycle until progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival.
Improved Outcome
Median progression-free survival was 9.2 months in the bevacizumab group vs 6.5 months in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.40, P < .001), including 12.4 vs 7.9 months (HR = 0.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.12–0.63) among 40 patients with known EGFR-mutant tumors and 8.3 vs 5.6 months (HR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.21-0.53) among 111 with known EGFR wild-type tumors. The objective response rate was 54% vs 26% (P < .001). Median overall survival was 24.3 vs 17.7 months (HR = 0.68, P = .0154).
The safety profile of bevacizumab plus carboplatin-paclitaxel was similar to that in previous studies of the combination in NSCLC, with no new safety signals being observed.
The investigators concluded: “The addition [of] bevacizumab to carboplatin/paclitaxel was well tolerated and resulted in a clinically meaningful treatment benefit in Chinese patients with advanced nonsquamous NSCLC.”
Caicun Zhou, MD, PhD, of Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, is the corresponding author for the Journal of Clinical Oncology article.
The study was supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. For full disclosures of the study authors, visit jco.ascopubs.org.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
