Some colorectal cancer patients whose tumors had gotten worse on all standard treatments benefited from a combination of Afinitor® (everolimus) and Avastin® (bevacizumab) during a small trial reported at the 2010 ASCO Annual meeting in Chicago.
While no tumors got smaller on the treatment, about half of patients in the Phase II trial had their cancer remain stable for six months or more. Three patients have had stable disease for more than a year.
Seven out of ten patients in the trial had at least one serious side effect. The most common was hypertension, but there were several bowel abscesses or fistulas and one case of bowel perforation. There was one death due to treatment infection.
