Efficacy and safety of bevacizumab plus erlotinib for patients with recurrent ovarian, primary peritoneal, and fallopian tube cancer: a trial of the Chicago, PMH, and California Phase II Consortia

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this phase II trial were to assess the activity and tolerability of the combination of bevacizumab and erlotinib in patients with recurrent ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer.

METHODS

This was a single arm, multicenter phase II trial with overall objective response as the primary endpoint. Eligible patients had two or fewer prior chemotherapy regimens for recurrent or refractory disease and no prior anti-VEGF or anti-EGFR agents. Bevacizumab, 15 mg/kg, was administered intravenously every 21 days and erlotinib, 150 mg orally, was given daily.

RESULTS

Between July and October 2005, 13 patients were enrolled. There were two major objective responses, one complete response of 16+ month duration and one partial response of 11 month duration, for a response rate of 15% (95% CI 1.9% to 45.4%). Seven patients had a best response of stable disease. The most common grade 3 or 4 toxicities included anemia (n=1), nausea (n=2), vomiting (n=1), hypertension (n=1), and diarrhea (n=2). One patient with an ileostomy was removed from the study secondary to grade 3 diarrhea. Two patients had fatal gastrointestinal perforations.

CONCLUSION

There was no strong suggestion that this combination was superior to single agent bevacizumab, and the rate of gastrointestinal perforation was of concern. The study was therefore stopped. Identification of risk factors for gastrointestinal perforation will be of importance for the use of bevacizumab in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Biomarkers of response to epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Working Group: standardization for use in the clinical trial setting

The body of literature on the correlations between molecular assessments and patient outcomes after treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors continues to grow. It will be important in the future to determine how to most effectively integrate molecular assays that assess the likelihood of therapeutic benefit into clinical practice. Although EGFR-targeted therapies such as erlotinib have been approved for use without molecular testing, immunohistochemistry, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and mutational analyses of the EGFR gene have all been proposed as candidates to help predict response or survival benefit from EGFR-targeted therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Further prospective validation from ongoing randomized studies will be needed to fully determine which assays are best to help predict patient outcome. In addition, it will be critical for these assays to undergo standardization before widespread clinical use. The Molecular Assays in NSCLC Working Group, under the sponsorship of Genentech Inc, Roche Pharmaceuticals, and OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc, was convened to evaluate the available molecular assays for use in the clinical trial setting and provide recommendations for application and interpretation of these tests for future clinical trials. Recommendations of the Molecular Assays in NSCLC Working Group for the use of EGFR molecular assays are presented and include guidelines for tissue storage, handling, and processing. Recommendations for the standardization of molecular assays are also discussed.