According to a study published online August 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute show that there is an increased chance of blood clot in arteries if the chemotherapy treatment is combined with bevacizumab, the anti cancer drug as compared to treatment with chemotherapy only.
According to some previous study patients with metastatic colorectal and non–small-cell lung cancer have an increased risk of blood clot in arteries but this combination of bevacizumab and chemotherapy seem to increase their chance of survival.Frank Scappaticci, M.D., Ph.D., of Genentech, Inc. in South San Francisco, Calif., and colleagues analyzed data from five randomized controlled trials that included 1,745 patients with metastatic colorectal, breast, or non–small-cell lung cancer.
Among patients treated with the combination therapy, 3.8 percent experienced blood clots in their arteries, compared with 1.7 percent of patients on chemotherapy alone. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of blood clots in veins.
Risk factors for blood clots in both arteries and veins included previous blood clots and older age (65 or older.)
“The clinical benefit associated with bevacizumab therapy was maintained for all subgroups. Although death from [a blood clot in the artery] was uncommon, we did not capture functional disabilities from these events, and the risk factors…identified in this study should be considered when making treatment decisions for individual patients,” the authors write.
Source-Eurekalert
BIN/J
