Pilot Study of Taxol, Carboplatin, and Bevacizumab in Advanced Stage Ovarian Carcinoma Patients

Overview

The most likely way to improve survival and cure rates in treating ovarian cancer, fallopian tube epithelial cancer, and peritoneal cancer is with maximal "upfront" therapy (Morrow \& Curtin, 1998). This involves an optimal primary tumor debulking surgery. The most active chemotherapy agents should then be promptly administered. Taxol and Carboplatin or Cisplatin have become the standard" first line" therapy because of proven survival benefits with those regimens in treating advanced ovarian adenocarcinoma patients. New chemotherapy agents like bevacizumab have demonstrated increased overall and progression free survival benefits in metastatic colorectal cancer patients and are being studied for their potential contributory impact on the current standard of treatment. Since no triplet regimen has demonstrated compelling superiority, the combination of taxol, carboplatin, and bevacizumab is intriguing because of their potential synergy, distinct mechanisms of action, and non-overlapping toxicity. The null hypothesis (Ho) is that the drug regimen will demonstrate an 80% patient response rate (RR). The alternative Hypothesis (H1): The triplet drug regimen will demonstrate a significantly higher patient response rate than standard therapy. Hypothesis (H2): The triplet drug regimen will demonstrate a significantly more favorable patient time to tumor progression rate than standard therapy.

The most likely way to improve survival and cure rates in treating ovarian cancer, fallopian tube epithelial cancer, and peritoneal cancer is with maximal "upfront" therapy. This involves an optimal primary tumor debulking surgery. The most active chemotherapy agents should then be promptly administered. Taxol and Carboplatin or Cisplatin have become the standard" first line" therapy because of proven survival benefits with those regimens in treating advanced ovarian adenocarcinoma patients. New agents like bevacizumab (Avastin), which have demonstrated increased overall and progression free survival benefits in metastatic colorectal cancer patients, are being added to the optimal first line ovarian chemotherapy regimen in hopes of seeing improvement in progressive free interval and over-all survival. Since no triplet regimen has demonstrated compelling superiority, the combination of taxol, carboplatin, and bevacizumab (Avastin) is intriguing because of their potential synergy, distinct mechanisms of action, and non-overlapping toxicity.