Bevacizumab for glioblastoma: current indications, surgical implications, and future directions.

ABSTRACT: Initial enthusiasm after promising Phase II trials for treating recurrent glioblastomas with the antiangiogenic drug bevacizumab—a neutralizing antibody targeting vascular endothelial growth factor—was tempered by recent Phase III trials showing no efficacy for treating newly diagnosed glioblastomas. As a result, there is uncertainty about the appropriate indications for the use of bevacizumab in glioblastoma treatment. There are also concerns about the effects of bevacizumab on wound healing that neurosurgeons must be aware of. In addition, biochemical evidence suggests a percentage of tumors treated with bevacizumab for an extended period of time will undergo transformation into a more biologically aggressive and invasive phenotype with a particularly poor prognosis. Despite these concer

SUBMITTER: Castro BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4839778 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature