https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8567-7920
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Abstract
Aim: Real-world data on treatment patterns and outcomes of advanced ovarian cancer (OC) patients since bevacizumab approval in first-line (1L) OC treatment were assessed. Materials & methods: In this descriptive retrospective study using the ConcertAI Oncology Dataset, patient characteristics, treatment patterns and real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS) from start of 1L were evaluated among patients diagnosed with advanced OC between 2011–2020. Treatment data from structured sources were confirmed and/or supplemented by human review of unstructured data. Results: Median rwPFS for bevacizumab and non bevacizumab cohorts was 17.3 months (95% CI: 14.9, 20.4) and 15.7 months (95% CI: 12.3, 29.1), respectively. Patients with ≥10 doses during 1L had higher median rwPFS compared with patients receiving 3–9 doses. Conclusion: This real-world study suggests benefits of bevacizumab treatment in advanced OC were primarily experienced by patients who received ≥10 doses in 1L.
Plain Language Summary
Comparison of advanced ovarian cancer patients treated with or without bevacizumab in the US Community Oncology Clinics
What is this article about?
Bevacizumab (Avastin) is a medicine that treats cancer. It makes it harder for the cancer to get nutrients from blood. At first, you could only use it after other cancer medicine did not work. From 2018, bevacizumab could be used with cancer medicine as the first treatment. Experts said it should continue for a year after cancer medicine stopped. This would make it harder for the cancer to come back.
What did we do?
We checked if more patients got bevacizumab as their first medicine after 2018 approval. We also saw how long it took for the cancer to come back. We did this by looking at electronic medical records between January 2011 and August 2020. We looked for women who had cancer that was staring to spread or had spread. We compared women who got bevacizumab to women who only got other cancer medicines.
What were the results?
After 2018, more women got bevacizumab early. We saw that the cancer did not take longer to come back. We noticed that half the women took bevacizumab less than ten-times out of up to 22-times. The cancer took longer to come back for women who took bevacizumab ten or more times.
What do the result mean?
We do not know why so many women stopped treatment early. Other studies in different countries also showed better results for women who got more bevacizumab. This study can help doctors and patients decide how much bevacizumab to give when they might be thinking of stopping treatment.
Tweetable abstract Real-world electronic medical record study shows earlier use of bevacizumab in advanced ovarian cancer after 2018 US FDA approval. Results suggest does-dependent progression-free survival benefit.
Author contributions
RW DeClue: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing - review & editing, project administration. EA Szamreta: Writing - review & editing, project administration, funding acquisition. S Gautam: Investigation, writing - review & editing, project administration. MD Fisher: Writing – review & editing, supervision. MJ Monberg: Conceptualization, review & editing, supervision.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
This study was supported by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., NJ, USA, and AstraZeneca UK Ltd, who are codeveloping olaparib. Merck & Co., Inc. (the sponsor) collaborated on the design of the study, interpretation of the analyses, and in the decision to submit the article for publication. The sponsor did not have a direct role in the data collection, data analysis or the writing of the report. RW DeClue, S Gautam and MD Fisher were employed by ConcertAI during the time this research was conducted and report research funding from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. to ConcertAI. EA Szamreta and MJ Monberg are employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. and may hold stock or stock options in Merck & Co., Inc. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
N Connors (NCC Medical & Scientific Communications, Inc.) provided professional assistance with manuscript preparation, which was funded by ConcertAI.
Ethical conduct of research
This retrospective chart review study involving human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of IntegReview (TX, USA), now part of Advarra (MD, USA). This research study was conducted retrospectively from data obtained for clinical purposes. An Institutional Review Board waiver of consent was granted from IntegReview.
Previous presentations
Part of this research was presented at SGO 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer (19–25 March 2021).
Data sharing statement
ConcertAI does not make datasets publicly available because study data are used under license from source practices and other data providers. ConcertAI will consider requests to access study datasets on a case-by-case basis.