Purpose: Add systemic bevacizumab (Bev) to adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) plus systemic therapy after liver resection to increase recurrence-free survival (RFS).
Patients and methods: Patients were randomly assigned to HAI plus systemic therapy with or without Bev. If 1-year RFS of ≥ 80% was obtained in Bev arm, then the regimen would be studied further. HAI with fluorodeoxyuridine plus dexamethasone was given on days 1 to 14 of a 5-week cycle. Systemic therapy and Bev 5 mg/kg was delivered on days 15 and 29: oxaliplatin 85 mg/m², leucovorin 400 mg/m², and fluorouracil 2,000 mg/m² infusion for 2 days (if patients received prior oxaliplatin, then irinotecan 150 mg/m² was used). RFS and survival were estimated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by using the log-rank test.
Results: The two arms had similar characteristics: synchronous disease (66% v 63%), more than one metastasis (84% v 74%), and clinical risk score ≥ 3 (50% v 46%) for no Bev versus Bev arms, respectively. With a median follow-up of 30 months, 4-year survival was 85% and 81% (P = .5), and 4-year RFS was 46% versus 37%; 1-year RFS was 83% and 71% (P = .4) for no Bev versus Bev arms. Bilirubin > 3 mg/dL was seen in zero of 38 versus five of 35 patients (P = .02) and biliary stents were placed in zero versus four patients (P = .05) in no Bev versus Bev arms.
Conclusion: The addition of Bev to adjuvant HAI plus systemic therapy after liver resection did not seem to increase RFS or survival but appeared to increase biliary toxicity. Four-year survival was 85% and 81% for no Bev and Bev arms, respectively.