2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting

Our plain-English summary of 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, by S. Cleghorn (The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine, 2015).

The study

• Author: S. Cleghorn
• Journal: The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine
• Published: 2015;3(7):516-7
• Type of article: News
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a news report in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, not a research study. The author summarized results presented at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, mostly drug trials for lung cancer. One section concerned malignant pleural mesothelioma, which the report described as rare and mainly associated with asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure itself was not studied. The report described a trial by Gerard Zalcman and colleagues (Caen, France) that assigned 225 patients to standard chemotherapy and 223 to chemotherapy plus bevacizumab, a drug that blocks VEGF-A. Median overall survival was 18.8 months (95% CI 15.9–22.6) in the bevacizumab group and 16.1 months (14.0–17.9) in the chemotherapy-only group (hazard ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.61–0.96; p=0.0127). Progression-free survival also improved with bevacizumab. Overall quality of life was much the same in both groups, but symptom-specific quality-of-life data were unavailable. Severe (grade 3–4) adverse events occurred in 71% of the bevacizumab group and 62% of the chemotherapy-only group. One commentator, Natasha Leighl, said practice could change on the basis of this trial. Two commentators said cost could limit its adoption.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: News report summarizing presentations at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting (not original research); the mesothelioma section describes a comparison of chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab presented by other researchers
• Who was studied: Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma in a trial presented by Gerard Zalcman and colleagues (Caen University Hospital, France): 225 assigned to standard chemotherapy and 223 to bevacizumab
• Exposure: Treatment, not asbestos exposure: bevacizumab (a VEGF-A inhibitor, 15 mg/kg every 21 days) added to chemotherapy. Asbestos is mentioned only as the main association of the disease.
• Main results:
  • Median overall survival was 18.8 months (95% CI 15.9–22.6) in the bevacizumab group vs 16.1 months (14.0–17.9) in the chemotherapy-only group; HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61–0.96; p=0.0127
  • Adding bevacizumab also improved progression-free survival (no figures given)
  • Global quality of life was much the same in each group
  • Grade 3–4 adverse events occurred in 71% of the bevacizumab group vs 62% of the chemotherapy-only group
• The authors' conclusion: The report gives no conclusion from the trial investigators. A commentator, Natasha Leighl, said practice could change on the basis of this trial but cautioned about bevacizumab's cost. Anna Nowak said adoption would depend on cost-effectiveness.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Symptom-specific quality-of-life data were unavailable
  • Commentators noted that the cost of bevacizumab could be a stumbling block to adoption

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer.

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• Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Summary — H.L. Kindler, N. Ismaila, et al. (2018)
• Asbestos and malignant mesothelioma: foreword. Reviews of a symposium entitled "Malignant Mesothelioma" organized by the Study Group on Fibrous and Particulate Substances of the 77th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Hygiene, 2007 — T. Otsuki (2008)
• Notes from the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Korean Society of Thoracic Radiology: asbestos-related thoracic diseases — J.S. Kim, J.G. Yi, et al. (2013)
• Health effects of tremolite. This official statement of the American Thoracic Society was adopted by the ATS Board of Directors, June 1990 — (1990)

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