Charles Fuchs, MD: Experience With Patients on Bevacizumab Plus Chemotherapy

What is your experience with patients who receive bevacizumab plus a CT regimen? What types of issues/side effects do they report with treatment?

As I say, the combination of any chemotherapy with bevacizumab is really well-tolerated, and the side effects that we'll see have been principally limited to the side effects that we experience with the chemotherapy. That is, bevacizumab doesn't really contribute to side effects. If a side effect occurs, it's going to be in the form of hypertension, which will arise a few months after starting and if that were the case, I wouldn't necessarily change the regimen, but I would certainly provide treatment like an ACE inhibitor for the hypertension, which is usually quite effective.

We do check urine proteins periodically for patients on chemotherapy plus bevacizumab, and were there to be significant elevations in proteinuria, that might be a circumstance to discontinue or suspend the use of bevacizumab. Frankly, even there that's so uncommon that I can't even remember the last time I had to do that.

Unresectable Colon Cancer: Case 1

68-year-old man was diagnosed with advanced, unresectable colon cancer has just started treatment with FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab.