Maintenance Bevacizumab is Associated With Increased Hemoglobin in Patients With Advanced, Nonsquamous, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

We retrospectively analyzed hematologic parameters in 22 patients with advanced, nonsquamous, NSCLC undergoing VEGF inhibition on a phase II clinical trial of bevacizumab, carboplatin, and gemcitabine. We also examined TTP in relation to hemoglobin changes. Median hemoglobin increased significantly from a 12.9 g/dL pretreatment to 13.8 g/dL (p =.01) after the second cycle of maintenance bevacizumab until the first off cycle measurement. There was no difference in TTP in patients who achieved a rise in hemoglobin compared with patients who did not (median 238 days vs. 268 days, p =.38.) Maintenance bevacizumab is associated with increased hemoglobin in advanced, nonsquamous, NSCLC patients.

Keywords: :

• Angiogenesis
• Cancer biomarkers
• Non-small cell lung cancer
• Clinical trials
• VEGF

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge Genentech BioOncology and Eli Lilly and Company for their support of the clinical trial in which these patients were enrolled. Partial support for the analysis was provided by grants from Breathe California and the Colombo Trust (HW). The correlative laboratory studies were funded by a NIH 1 R01 HL074267-01 grant and an associated ARRA supplement (CJK).