Bevacizumab Boosts Treatment Responses in Early Breast Cancer

In GBG44, epirubicin was administered at a dose of 90 mg/m²and cyclophosphamide was administered at a dose of 600 mg/m²– both on day 1, every 3 weeks for four cycles, followed by four cycles of docetaxel a dose of 100 mg/m² on day 1, every 3 weeks. As in NSABP B-40, bevacizumab was administered at a dose of 15 mg/kg intravenously. In this study, however, it was administered every 3 weeks starting on day 1 of the first epirubicin-cyclophosphamide cycle for 8 cycles.

NSABP B-40 was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Genentech USA, and Eli Lilly. GeparQuinto was supported by grants from Sanofi-Aventis and Roche, Germany. Detailed individual author disclosures are available with the full text of the articles at NEJM.org.