The impact of Bevacizumab (Avastin) on survival in metastatic solid tumors--a meta-analysis and systematic review

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of Bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy on overall survival of patients with metastatic solid tumors. DESIGN: A systematic literature search to identify randomized trials comparing chemotherapy with and without Bevacizumab in metastatic cancer. The primary end point was overall survival (OS) and the secondary end points were progression free survival (PFS) and toxicity. A meta-analysis was performed for each tumor type and for the combination of all tumors. RESULTS: 24 randomized trials with 8 different types of malignancies were included in this meta-analysis. Patients treated with Bevacizumab had an OS benefit, hazard ratio (HR) 0.89 (95% CI 0.84-0.93, P