Cisplatin-based chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for Chinese postmenopausal women with advanced cervical cancer: a retrospective observational study

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of cisplatin-based chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab (BEV) in Chinese women with advanced cervical cancer (ACC). METHODS: For this observational study, we analysed the data of 316 Chinese women with ACC who were treated at the Henan provincial people’s hospital between Jan 1, 2014, and Dec 31, 2018, with cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus BEV (CB) or cisplatin-based chemotherapy alone (CA) until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or death. The co-primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS); the secondary endpoint was the occurrence of adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: A total of 264 patients with ACC were included in the assessment (CB, n = 130 and CA, n = 134). At a median follow-up of 38 months (IQR 36–40), the median OS in the CB cohort was significantly longer than that in the CA cohort (hazard ratio [HR] 1.21, 95% confidence interval[CI] 1.14–1.73; p = 0.002); additionally, the median PFS was 345 days (95% CI, 318–372) for CB and 261 days (95% CI, 165–357) for CA(HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.12–2.17; p = 0.000). Significant differences were noted between groups in terms of thrombosis/embolism, neutropenia, and febrile neutropenia. CONCLUSIONS: In Chinese women with ACC, cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus BEV is associated with improved survival compared to cisplatin-based chemotherapy alone. This finding suggests a positive survival benefit of anti-angiogenesis therapy in this population.