BEVACIZUMAB IN COMBINATION WITH IRINOTECAN IN THE TREATMENT OF RECURRENT GLIOBLASTOMAS

The main tasks of the study were to evaluate the efficiency of treatment and to estimate time to progression and survival rates in patients with recurrent glioblastomas receiving combination treatment with irinotecan and bevacizumab. Five (41.7 %) patients achieved partial regression; disease stabilization and progression were observed in 5 (41.7 %) and 2 (16.6 %) cases, respectively. The median time to disease progression was 5.5 months; 6-month and one-year survival rates were 66.6 and 25 %. The median overall survival was 9.0 months. Treatment tolerability was satisfactory. Thus, the preliminary results of our study show the high efficiency of a combination therapy regimen incorporating bevacizumab and irinotecan for patients with recurrent glioblastomas and they are comparable with the data available in the literature on investigations of the efficiency of this treatment regimen. This study is being continued.