Another Strike Against Antiangiogenic Therapy for Breast Cancer

Adding sunitinib to capecitabine failed to improve survival in patients with metastatic disease.

Antiangiogenic therapy was heralded as a potential panacea for the treatment of cancer, and hopes were high that the observations in animal studies of various agents that target malignant neovasculature would translate to humans with malignant disease. However, the success to date has been mixed. In breast cancer, early enthusiasm for the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)–targeted agent bevacizumab dimmed after initial randomized trials showed that combining it with chemotherapy was associated with a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS), of varying clinical significance, but not in overall survival. The FDA approval of bevacizumab for treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) has since been removed.

Now, inves…

Reviewing Author

William J. Gradishar, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardLilly; AstraZeneca; Gilead

Grant/Research SupportBreast Cancer Research Foundation

Editorial BoardsClinical Breast Cancer; Oncology; Annals of Surgery; Breast Cancer Research and Treatment

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (Chair, Breast Cancer Panel); American Board of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology Board)