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PURPOSE: The addition of bevacizumab to cytotoxic chemotherapy has demonstrated a progression-free survival (PFS) benefit in the first-line and second-line treatment of advanced or metastatic breast cancer (MBC). However, the addition of bevacizumab to capecitabine in heavily pretreated MBC patients did not show a PFS benefit (AVF2119g phase III trial). The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of novel putative biomarkers as predictors of benefit from bevacizumab in retrospective subset analyses of the AVF2119g trial. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: In the AVF2119g trial, 462 patients with MBC were randomly assigned to receive capecitabine or capecitabine plus bevacizumab. Primary tumor tissue and outcome data were available for 223 patients. Biomarker expression was assessed by in situ hybridization (VEGF-A, VEGF-B, thrombospondin-2 and Flt4) or immunohistochemistry (VEGF-C, PDGF-C, neuropilin-1, delta-like ligand (Dll) 4, Bv8, p53 and thymidine phosphorylase) on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue. PFS was associated with these variables in retrospective subset analyses. RESULTS: Patients with low scores for Dll4, VEGF-C, and neuropilin-1 showed trends toward improvement in PFS associated with the addition of bevacizumab to capecitabine (P values = 0.01, 0.05, and 0.07, respectively). These observations were not statistically significant following correction for multiple hypothesis testing. CONCLUSION: These retrospective subset analyses suggest that expression of Dll4, VEGF-C, and neuropilin-1 may predict benefit from bevacizumab. Such observations are not conclusive but warrant additional testing.

Original publication

DOI

10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-1791

Type

Journal article

Journal

Clin Cancer Res

Publication Date

15/01/2011

Volume

17

Pages

372 - 381

Keywords

Adult, Aged, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Bevacizumab, Biomarkers, Tumor, Breast Neoplasms, Capecitabine, Clinical Trials, Phase III as Topic, Deoxycytidine, Disease-Free Survival, Fluorouracil, Humans, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Metastasis, Neuropilin-1, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C