The 'real life' impact of adding bevacizumab to first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer: A retrospective large database study

e14571 Background: Bevacizumab is included in the Israeli National List of Reimbursed Drugs (NLRD) for 1st line treatment of all metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients since 7/2006. This study evaluates the "real life" impact of adding bevacizumab to 1st line treatment of mCRC by comparing patients' outcomes before and after the drug's availability in the NLRD. Methods: We conducted a retrospective database study ,using the computerized databases of Clalit Health Services' (CHS), Israel's largest health care provider, to compare two cohorts: (A) all CHS' patients diagnosed with mCRC between 1/2000-12/2004 that received 1st line irinotecan or oxaliplatin-based combination chemotherapy (before bevacizumab was introduced), and (B) all CHS's patients that started 1st line treatment with irinotecan or oxaliplatin-based combination chemotherapy and bevacizumab between 7/2006 and 8/2009 (allowing a minimum follow-up of 3 years). The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) and the secondary endpoints were 1st line progression free survival (PFS) and metastatectomy rates. Since data on actual progression status was unavailable, PFS was defined as the duration of 1st line treatment. As CHS covers more than 50% of the Israeli population, our study may represent the general care received by Israeli patients with mCRC. Results: The study population included 1,739 patients: 1,052 in cohort A and 687 in cohort B. Patient demographics were similar between the cohorts. Median OS was 15.0 months for cohort A (95% CI: 13.4–16.6) and 23.0 months for cohort B (95% CI: 21.7–24.3), with an unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.71 (95% CI: 0.64-0.80, pst line treatment of mCRC were significantly higher in the later period of the study. The addition of bevacizumab to standard treatment of mCRC may have had a major contribution to this improvement.