Highlights from the European Society for Medical Oncology

TON - November 2012, Vol 5, No 10 — November 15, 2012

Oncology experts from all over the globe arrived in Vienna, Austria, to attend the Euro­pean Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 Congress. Attendance broke all records, with 16,394 delegates, many of them from outside of Europe: 1116 from the United States, 539 from Japan, 479 from China, 292 from Argentina, and 258 from Brazil.

Following are some highlights from the Presidential Symposia and papers proffered at the meeting.

Adding bevacizumab to chemo­therapy regimens improved response rates and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer, according to an exploratory analysis of the phase 3 AURELIA trial (Abstract LBA26).1 The study design allowed treatment with 1 of 3 chemo­therapy regimens (weekly paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin [PLD], or topotecan).

Bevacizumab improved PFS in the overall analysis of the trial (pooling data from the 3 different regimens). Median PFS was 10.4 months for bevacizumab plus chemotherapy versus 3.9 months for chemotherapy alone.

“Bevacizumab combined with chemo­therapy should be considered a new standard option for platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer,” stated lead author Andres M. Poveda, MD, Fundación Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, Spain.

The exploratory analysis looked at each of the 3 regimens and found that weekly paclitaxel plus bevacizumab had superior results. As stated above, median PFS was 10.4 months when bevacizumab was added to weekly paclitaxel versus 3.9 months for weekly paclitaxel alone. In the PLD cohort, median PFS was 5.4 months versus 3.4 months, respectively. In the topotecan cohort, median PFS was 5.8 months versus 2.1 months, respectively.

AURELIA randomized 361 patients with platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer treated with up to 2 prior anticancer regimens to chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus bevacizu­mab. The chemotherapy regimen was the investigator’s choice among the 3 regimens. Treatment was continued until unacceptable toxicity or progressive disease occurred.

Overall response rates (ORRs) were superior with the addition of bevacizu­mab, with the highest response rates observed in the weekly paclitaxel cohort: 51.7% versus 28.8% for chemotherapy alone. ORR was 18.3% and 7.9%, respectively, for the PLD cohort and 22.8% and 3.3%, respectively, for the topotecan cohort.
No significant differences in toxicity were observed, with the exception of more peripheral neuropathy in the weekly paclitaxel cohort and more hand-foot syndrome in the PLD cohort.

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