Background Bevacizumab added to carboplatin and paclitaxel is indicated for first-line treatment in advanced non squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has been associated with improved median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with platinum-based chemotherapy.

Purpose To determine the demographic characteristics of a group of patients with advanced NSCLC who received carboplatin - paclitaxel - bevacizumab based chemotherapy in our hospital and also to calculate the OS and PFS of these patients.

Materials and methods Observational retrospective study. Information about patients’ characteristics and their treatment was extracted from a cytostatic prescription program (Oncofarm) and electronic medical history program (Global Clinic). SPSS statistics was used to determinate descriptive characteristics and survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier method).

Results 33 patients received the treatment from 20/11/2008 to 31/08/2011, men accounted for 66.7% and the median age was 56.4 years. 54.5% of patients had performance status (PS) 1 followed by PS 0 in 18.2% of cases. All patients had stage IV at diagnosis. The most frequent histology was poorly differentiated (11 patients) followed by 10 with adenocarcinoma. 3 patients had squamous cell histology (this treatment is not indicated but compassionate use was granted).

In August 2012, 28 of 33 patients suffered disease progression. 22 completed 6 cycles of combined treatment and 15 patients continued with bevacizumab monotherapy. The median OS was 17.0 months (95% CI: 5.3–28.7) and the median PFS was 7.0 months (95% CI: 5.6–8.4). In Sandler’s study,¹ median OS was 12.3 months and median PFS was 6.2 months.

Conclusions Demographic characteristics of patients, median OS and PFS were similar to published randomised clinical trials, except for histology (adenocarcinoma is not the most frequent type in our observational study). But the observational retrospective design, low number of patients, and dosage differences limited the extrapolation of these results.

Reference

1. Sandler A, et al. Paclitaxel – carboplatin alone or with bevacizumab for non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 2006;355(24):2542-2550

No conflict of interest.