Increased risk of blood clots in the arteries when the tumor is treated with chemotherapy and bevacizumab
Treatment with chemotherapy and bevacizumab, an anticancer drug is at a higher risk of blood clots in the arteries compared with patients treated with chemotherapy only connected to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute online. The combination of chemotherapy and bevacizumab has been shown to increase survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and non-small lung cancer, but some studies suggest that these patients have an increased risk of blood clots in the arteries.Frank Scappaticci, MD, Ph.D., of Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, California, and colleagues analyzed data from five randomized controlled trials in 1745 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, breast or contain non-small cell lung cancer . Among the patients
with the combination therapy, 3.8 percent experienced blood clots in the arteries, compared with 1.7 percent of patients were treated with chemotherapy alone. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of blood clots in the veins.Risk factors for blood clots in arteries and veins, phlebitis and older (65 years or more.The clinical benefit associated with bevacizumab was obtained for all subgroups. Although the death was from [a blood clot in the arteries] rare, but it does not capture functional disabilities from these events and the risk factors identified in this study, in treatment decisions for individual patients are considered, the authors write. ---------------------------- Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
---------------------------- Contact: Edward J.Long Jr.Citations: Scappaticci FA, Skillings JR Holden SN, Gerber HP, Miller K, et al. Arterial thromboembolic events in patients with metastatic carcinoma treated with chemotherapy and bevacizumab. J Natl Cancer Inst 2007; 99:1232-1239 Note: Some of the data from this study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2005. The
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