a study of pemetrexed and bevacizumab for participants with advanced non-small cell cancer

Conditions: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Summary: participants with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) will receive a first-line treatment of pemetrexed, cisplatin and bevacizumab as induction therapy followed by a maintenance treatment of pemetrexed and bevacizumab. treatment will continue until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity occurs. the primary objective of this study is to measure how long this treatment could prevent the disease progression.

the study will have 3 periods: a baseline period; a study treatment period, including both induction and maintenance treatment; and a follow-up period. approximately 110 participants will be enrolled into the study, with the aim of having 100 evaluable participants. eligible participants will first receive 4 cycles of induction chemotherapy with pemetrexed-cisplatin-bevacizumab. participants who achieve a response or do not progress after completion of induction chemotherapy and have an adequate performance status will receive maintenance therapy with pemetrexed-bevacizumab. treatment will continue until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity occurs. when treatment is discontinued, the participants health status will be monitored till death, loss to follow-up or data cut-off date. participants who continue to receive benefit from treatment at the time of data cut-off may receive continued access to pemetrexed and bevacizumab until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or any other reason at investigator or participants decision.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * histological or cytological diagnosis of nonsquamous stage iiib or stage iv nsclc that is not amenable to curative therapy * eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status of 0 or 1 * at least 1 unidimensionally measurable lesion meeting the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (recist) criteria * adequate organ function, including the following: * adequate bone marrow reserve: absolute neutrophil (segmented and bands) count (anc) ≥1.5 x 10\^9 per liter (10\^9/l), platelets ≥100 x 10\^9/l, and hemoglobin ≥10 gram per deciliter (g/dl) * hepatic: bilirubin ≤1.5 times the upper limit of normal (uln); alkaline phosphatase (ap), aspartate aminotransferase (ast), and alanine aminotransferase (alt) ≤3.0 x uln (ap, ast, and alt ≤5 x uln is acceptable if liver has tumor involvement) * renal: calculated creatinine clearance (crcl) ≥45 milliliter per minute (ml/min) based on the original weight-based cockcroft and gault formula, and serum creatinine ≤1.5 x uln * at the time of enrollment, if the urinalysis dipstick result is ≥2+ for protein, a 24-hour urine collection should be taken. in these cases, participants must have ≤1g protein/24 hours to be eligible for study participation * participants must sign an informed consent document (icd) exclusion criteria: * have received prior systemic anticancer therapy for lung cancer (including adjuvant early-stage treatment for nsclc) * have a serious cardiac condition, such as myocardial infarction within 6 months, angina, or heart disease, as defined by the new york heart association class iii or iv * have a second primary malignancy that is clinically detectable at the time of consideration for study enrollment * have known central nervous system (cns) disease, other than stable, treated brain metastasis. stable, treated brain metastasis is defined as metastasis having no evidence of progression or hemorrhage after treatment and no ongoing requirement for dexamethasone, as ascertained by clinical examination and post-treatment brain imaging (computed tomography \[ct\] scan or magnetic resonance imaging \[mri\]) * are receiving concurrent administration of any other antitumor therapy * have a history of gastrointestinal fistula, perforation, or abscess, inflammatory bowel disease, or diverticulitis * have had significant weight loss (that is, ≥10%) over the previous 6 weeks before study entry * have a history of gross hemoptysis (bright red blood of ≥½ teaspoon per episode of coughing) \<3 months prior to enrollment or history or evidence of inherited bleeding diathesis or coagulopathy with the risk of bleeding * are taking or have recently taken (within 10 days of enrollment) full-dose oral or parenteral anticoagulants or thrombolytic agents for therapeutic purposes. prophylactic use of anticoagulants is allowed; international normalized ratio (inr) should be \<1.5 at study enrollment * have a history of hypertension, unless hypertension is well controlled upon study entry (≤150/90 millimeter of mercury \[mm hg\]) and the participant is on a stable regimen of antihypertensive therapy. participants should not have any prior history of hypertensive crisis or hypertensive encephalopathy * have had major surgery, open biopsy, or significant traumatic injury within 28 days prior to study enrollment, or anticipate the need for major surgical procedure during the course of the study * history of thrombotic disorders within the last 6 months prior to entry