RISC/BENEFIT PROFILE OF BEVACIZUMAB IN METASTATIC COLON CANCER: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
A systematic review and meta-analysis inves- tigating bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer were performed. The primary endpoint was safety and secondary endpoints wereoverall survival and progression-free surviv- al. The relative risks for side effects werecalculated with their 95% confidence interval (CI) using the inverse of variance method. For statistically significant relative risks, number needed to harm were calculated. Authors retrieved 6 out of 17 eligible papers encompassing 3385 patients. Only hyper- tension (relative risk 2,98 95% CI 2,32-3,84), gastrointes- tinal perforations (relative risk 5,04 95% CI 1,72–14,79) and bleeding (relative risk 2,07 95% CI 1,19–3.62) were significantly increased. Bevacizumab significantly improved both overall survival (HR 0,80 95% CI 0,71–0,91) and progression-free survival (hazard ratio (HR) 0,62 95% CI 0,52–0,74). Number needed to treat for overall survival is 12, whilst number needed to harms ranges from 2 to 14,286.
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