NCCN experts recommend bevacizumab for treating metastatic breast cancer

The Expert Breast Cancer Panel of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network^® (NCCN^®) met July 10-12, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA. At the meeting, the multidisciplinary breast cancer experts voted (24 For, 0 Against, 1 Abstain) in favor of maintaining the current position and recommendation in the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines^™) for Breast Cancer on the use of bevacizumab (Avastin^®, Genentech/Roche) in metastatic breast cancer. The recommendation is as follows:

Bevacizumab in combination with paclitaxel is an appropriate therapeutic option for metastatic breast cancer with the evidence designation 2A.

The following footnote accompanies the recommendation:

"Randomized clinical trials in metastatic breast cancer document that the addition of bevacizumab to some first or second line chemotherapy agents modestly improves time to progression and response rates but does not improve overall survival. The time to progression impact may vary among cytotoxic agents and appears greatest with bevacizumab in combination with weekly paclitaxel."

Source: National Comprehensive Cancer Network