Feasibility of cisplatin/pemetrexed with 15 mg/kg bevacizumab for the treatment of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer

The aim of the present study was to retrospectively evaluate the feasibility of cisplatin/pemetrexed/bevacizumab (CPB) therapy at a bevacizumab (BEV) dose of 15 mg/kg as a first‑line chemotherapeutic strategy for patients with advanced non‑squamous non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 31 consecutive patients with non‑squamous NSCLC were treated with first‑line chemotherapy of CPB at a BEV dose of 15 mg/kg at the National Kyushu Cancer Center (Fukuoka, Japan) between November 2009 and December 2011. Clinical characteristics, response rate (RR), progression‑free survival (PFS) time, overall survival (OS) time and adverse events were retrospectively analyzed. The 31 patients exhibited a male:female ratio of 21:10 and a median age of 60 years (range, 38‑76 years). In total, 5 patients were of clinical stage III and 26 patients were of stage IV, 15 had a performance status of 0 and 16 had a performance status of 1, and 29 patients were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and 2 were diagnosed with adenosquamous carcinoma. The EGFR mutation status was positive (exon 19 deletion), wild‑type and unknown in 3, 21 and 7 patients, respectively. A total of 28 patients (90.3%) received a minimum of four courses of CPB therapy. Hematological toxicities classified as grade III or higher included neutropenia (29.0%), anemia (3.2%) and thrombocytopenia (3.2%), however, no severe non‑hematological toxicities were observed. Additionally, 22 patients (71.0%) exhibited a partial response and 9 (29.0%) exhibited stable disease, resulting in a RR of 71.0% [95% confidence interval (CI), 41‑74]. The median PFS and OS times were 8.4 months (95% CI, 7.9‑9.0) and 28.5 months (95% CI, 26.4‑30.6), respectively. Therefore, CPB therapy at a BEV dose of 15 mg/kg appears to be a feasible treatment strategy for patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC.