The efficacy and toxicity of maintenance therapy with bevacizumab plus pemetrexed versus bevacizumab/pemetrexed alone for stage IIIB/IV nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

What is known and Objective Whether maintenance therapy with bevacizumab (Bev) + pemetrexed (Pem) can achieve greater clinical benefits than Bev or Pem alone for stage IIIB/IV nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. We assessed the antitumour effect and toxicity of maintenance Bev+Pem versus maintenance with single-agent Bev/Pem in this meta-analysis. Methods Appropriate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were screened using electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane and Web of Science). The endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and adverse events (AEs). Results and discussion We included six RCTs that contained 2,447 patients receiving induction therapy with platinum-based combination therapies. The maintenance therapy Bev+Pem group had prolonged PFS (HR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.69-0.80, p < 0.00001) and OS (HR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.83-0.99, p = 0.02) compared with the Bev/Pem group. Moreover, we further analysed the PFS rate (PFSR) and OS rate (OSR) and found that the Bev+Pem group exhibited improved PFSR-0.5y, PFSR-1y, PFSR-1.5y, PFSR-2y and OS-2y, with preferable trends in OS-1y, OS-3y and OS-4y compared with the Bev/Pem single-agent maintenance therapy. In addition, subgroup analyses indicated that the Bev+Pem group had greater PFS and OS among patients aged <65 years, patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score of 0, and patients who never smoked. Regarding adverse events (AEs), the Bev+Pem group exhibited an increased occurrence of anaemia, fatigue, thrombocytopenia and anorexia. What is new and Conclusion For stage IIIB/IV nonsquamous NSCLC patients, maintenance therapy with Bev+Pem offers an increased survival outcome (PFS, OS) compared with monotherapy. However, the increased incidence of AEs should not be neglected.