Lack of association of proteinuria and clinical outcome in patients treated with bevacizumab for metastatic colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Although bevacizumab-related hypertension has been reported as a predictive marker of therapy efficacy, an association between proteinuria and efficacy has not been reported. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighty-two consecutive patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with bevacizumab as first-line treatment between July 2007 and April 2009 were examined. RESULTS Seventy-one patients were included in the analysis set. Proteinuria occurred in 29 patients: Grade 1 in 15 patients and grade 2 in 14 patients; no grade 3 or higher proteinuria was observed. The response rate did not increase with the severity of proteinuria (p=0.307). The median progression-free survival was 17.8 months in cases with grade 2 proteinuria, 16.0 months in those with grade 1 proteinuria, and 10.4 months in those with grade 0 proteinuria (p=0.030). In multivariate analysis with a time-dependent adjustment, there was no correlation between severity of proteinuria and survival. CONCLUSION Bevacizumab-related proteinuria was not a predictive marker for patients with colorectal cancer treated with first-line bevacizumab.