Bevacizumab Addition May Be Beneficial for Melanoma Brain Metastases, Study Suggests
Source: Oncology News Central, April 2025
Bevacizumab (Avastin) was safely added to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with active melanoma brain metastases who had not previously received a PD-1 inhibitor, according to data from a small phase 2 trial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The combination demonstrated higher response rates than are historically seen with anti-PD1 monotherapy and comparable response rates to the standard of care, ipilimumab (Yervoy)/nivolumab (Opdivo). Adding bevacizumab did not increase intracranial hemorrhage or peritumoral brain edema and was overall better tolerated than combined anti-PD1/anti-CTLA-4 treatment.
“The results were really promising,” said study author Sarah Weiss, MD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “The brain metastasis response rate was 54%, which was certainly higher than we would anticipate with pembrolizumab alone, but was also on par with the response rates we see with dual checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab/nivolumab.” Ipilimumab/nivolumab is the current standard of care for asymptomatic melanoma brain metastases.
The study enrolled 37 patients with melanoma brain metastases and treated them with four doses of bevacizumab plus pembrolizumab every 3 weeks, followed by up to 2 years of pembrolizumab. The brain metastasis response rate was 54.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 36.9%–70.5%), with an extracranial response rate of 56.3% (95% CI, 37.7%–73.6%).