Maintenance bevacizumab-pemetrexed after first-line cisplatin-pemetrexed-bevacizumab for advanced nonsquamous nonsmall-cell lung cancer: updated survival analysis of the AVAPERL (MO22089) randomized phase III trial

The randomized, phase III AVAPERL trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab maintenance with or without pemetrexed in nonsquamous nonsmall-cell lung cancer (nsNSCLC). Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly prolonged with bevacizumab-pemetrexed, but overall survival (OS) data were immature. In this article, we report an independent, updated analysis of survival outcomes in AVAPERL. Patients with advanced nsNSCLC received first-line bevacizumab (7.5 mg/kg), cisplatin (75 mg/m(2)), and pemetrexed (500 mg/m(2)) every 3 weeks (q3w) for four cycles. Nonprogressing patients were randomized to maintenance bevacizumab (7.5 mg/kg) or bevacizumab-pemetrexed (500 mg/m(2)) q3w until progression or consent withdrawal. The primary end point of the trial was PFS; in this independent OS analysis, participating study centers were contacted to collect survival data on patients still alive at the time of the first analysis. A total of 376 patients received induction treatment. Disease control was confirmed in 71.9% of patients; 253 patients were randomized to maintenance treatment with bevacizumab (n = 125) or bevacizumab-pemetrexed (n = 128). At a median follow-up of 14.8 months, patients allocated to bevacizumab-pemetrexed had significantly improved PFS versus those on bevacizumab when measured from randomization [7.4 versus 3.7 months, hazard ratio (HR), 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-0.75); P