Targeted cancer drug combined with low-dose chemotherapy shrinks tumors, slows ovar...( h 5-FU-based chemotherapy for patients ...),Health

Cyclophosphamide is a standard chemotherapy drug given intravenously or as a pill that is used to treat several types of cancer often in combination with other drugs. But laboratory researchers have found that when the drug is given at a lower dose over a prolonged period, the dosage is too low to kill cancer cells, but can stop blood vessel growth that feeds the tumor.

"Our theory was that if we could combine a known anti-angiogenesis agent with a lower dose of chemotherapy on a prolonged basis, the two would work synergistically to cut off the blood supply feeding the ovarian cancer tumor and stop the cancer from growing," Garcia said.

To find out whether bevacizumab and cyclophosphamide would shrink tumors and increase the survival of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, the investigators evaluated 29 patients whose disease had recurred after at least one and up to three prior rounds of treatment with standard chemotherapy. Patients received 50 milligrams of a cyclophosphamide pill daily and 10 milligrams per kilogram of bevacizumab intravenously once weekly for the first three weeks of the study and every two weeks thereafter.

The investigators found that 47 percent of patients' had no progression of their disease at six months of treatment with both bevacizumab and cyclophosphamide. Further, ovarian cancer tumors shrank in 21 percent of the patients, while 59 percent achieved stable disease or ovarian cancer that did not progress or diminish for at least two months of treatment. Side effects were similar to those reported in other studies of bevacizumab, including high blood pressure, fatigue, and blood clots.

"Our study suggests that an anti-angiogenesis cancer drug used in combination with a low dose of chemotherapy which was conveniently taken in pill-form shrank tumors and may delay progression of the d
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Contact: Kelli Hanley
kelli.hanley@cshs.org
310-423-3674
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
16-May-2005