Guest guest Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 The angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech/Roche) significantly increases the risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), a new meta-analysis concludes. Because the drug is being increasingly used in the routine treatment of cancer patients, the authors suggest that this new finding might merit a black-box warning. Currently, the product information includes only arterial thromboembolic events in its warnings section. That finding comes from a meta-analysis of 5 clinical trials involving 1745 patients, which did not find an increase in the risk for VTE (J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007;99:1232-1239). However, many more trials have been conducted since then, and this new, much larger, meta-analysis found a significant increase in the risk for VTE. The finding is reported in the November 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. KATHY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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