A trial of chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer or fallopian tube cancer (ICON 7)

Summary of results

The research team found that giving bevacizumab as well as chemotherapy could help to treat ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer and fallopian tube cancer.

This trial recruited 1,528 women from around the world. Most had had surgery to remove as much of their cancer as possible in the 2 months before they joined the trial.

The women taking part were put into 1 of 2 groups by a computer. Neither they nor their doctor could decide which group they were in. This is called a randomised trial.

The 764 women in group 1 had carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy once every 3 weeks. Each 3 week period is 1 cycle of treatment, and they had 6 cycles.

The 764 women in group 2 had 6 cycles of carboplatin, paclitaxel and bevacizumab (Avastin) once every 3 weeks. After that they had 12 cycles of bevacizumab alone.

When the research team looked at the results in 2011 they found 200 women out of the 764 in the chemotherapy group (about 26%) had died. This compares to 178 out of 764 in the chemotherapy and bevacizumab group (about 23%).

When they looked at the results in more detail they found that women with more advanced cancer had more benefit than those with less advanced cancer.

The research team looked specifically at the women who had the highest risk of their cancer coming back. They found that of those who had died so far, the women in the bevacizumab group lived for an average of nearly 8 months longer than the women who had chemotherapy alone (36.6 months compared to 28.8 months).

Women in both groups had some side effects. The most common side effect of bevacizumab was high blood pressure, but it was easily treated.

The research team concluded that although the difference between the 2 groups wasn’t as big as they had hoped, the benefit of adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy was still significant in statistical terms. This means the difference in the 2 groups is not likely to be due to chance.

These are not the full and final results of the trial. The trial team plan to look at the results again to get more information in the future.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.