Bevacizumab for the Treatment of Patients With Brain Radionecrosis

Key Messages

• This review identified limited evidence regarding the clinical effectiveness and safety of bevacizumab for patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis after radiosurgery. These identified studies had several limitations, most notably due to the limited number of studies with control groups; therefore, the findings related to the effectiveness and safety in this population are uncertain.
• For adult patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis, treatment with bevacizumab may be associated with radiographic responses, a reduction in volumetric outcomes, an improvement in overall clinical and neurologic symptoms, an improvement in functional outcomes, and a reduction in corticosteroid use.
• Limited evidence from 1 study suggests that treatment with bevacizumab may be associated with greater radiographic response, a reduction in volumetric outcomes, and clinical symptom improvement compared to treatment with corticosteroids. The recurrence of brain radionecrosis for patients who received bevacizumab compared to corticosteroids was similar between groups.
• Commonly reported adverse events after patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis were treated with bevacizumab included hypertension, proteinuria, edema, pulmonary embolism, and various thromboembolic events.