The safety of Avastin in lung cancer (SAiL) study is a multi-center, open-source, stand-alone study. Patients with untreated, locally advanced, metastatic or recurrent non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were administered up to six cycles of chemotherapy combined with bevacizumab-humanized monoclonal antibodies, followed by maintenance therapy with bevacizumab until further progression of the disease. From August, 2006 to July, 2008 there were a total of 2,172 patients enrolled in the study, with a median progression-free survival time of 7.8 months and an overall survival time of 14.6 months. The present study describes the case of a 54-year-old male with lung cancer and T3N0M1 subcutaneous metastasis, which was initially treated with bevacizumab-combined carboplatin/paclitaxel (C/P) therapy and then maintained solely with bevacizumab for five years. Following six cycles of C/P bevacizumab treatment, the therapeutic evaluation revealed a stable disease (SD). The patient was kept on bevacizumab maintenance therapy for 50 months without disease progression until a persistent 3+ proteinuria was diagnosed in a follow-up review, which led to bevacizumab withdrawal and concomitant tumor growth. The present study concluded that the long-term application of bevacizumab monoclonal antibodies (mABs) was safe in a late-stage non-small cell lung cancer patient. The major adverse reaction that was exhibited was proteinuria, which was associated with the cumulative dose of bevacizumab and was able to be reversed by withdrawal. Patients with a prolonged SD may benefit from bevacizumab maintenance therapy.
Keywords: anti-vascular endothelial growth factor; chemotherapy; metastasis; safety of Avastin in lung trial; stable disease.