• A Passardi, O Nanni, D Tassinari, D Turci, L Cavanna, A Fontana, S Ruscelli, C Mucciarini, V Lorusso, A Ragazzini, G L Frassineti, and D Amadori.
• Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori. Electronic address: alessandro.passardi@irst.emr.it.
• Ann. Oncol. 2015 Jun 1; 26 (6): 1201-1207.

BackgroundWe report the results from a first-line phase III randomized clinical trial on metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of adding bevacizumab (B) to standard first-line chemotherapy (CT).Patients And MethodsmCRC patients were randomized to receive first-line CT (FOLFIRI or FOLFOX4) plus B (arm A) or CT only (arm B). The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), response rate (ORR) and safety. Three hundred and fifty patients and 310 events were required to have an 80% statistical power to detect a difference in PFS between the groups.ResultsBetween November 2007 and March 2012, 376 patients were randomized. About 60% of patients received FOLFOX4 and 40% FOLFIRI. After a median follow-up of 36 months, 343 progressions and 275 deaths had been observed in the overall population. The median PFS was 9.6 [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.2-10.3] and 8.4 (95% CI 7.2-9.0) months for arms A and B, respectively, with a hazard ratio of 0.86 (95% CI 0.70-1.07; P = 0.182). No statistically significant differences in OS or ORR were observed. B-containing regimens were associated with more frequent hypertension, bleeding, proteinuria and asthenia.ConclusionsThe addition of B to standard first-line CT for mCRC did not provide a benefit in terms of PFS, OS or ORR. Further research is warranted to better identify the target population.Clinical Trial NumberNCT01878422.© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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