43rd issue of the Virtual Journal Club (VJC) is available online!

This is notification that the forty-third issue of the Virtual Journal Club (VJC) is available on the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP) website. To access it, visit the Virtual Journal Club Surveys page or follow the direct link to the survey. 

"Association of hypertension and treatment outcomes in advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with bevacizumab or non-bevacizumab containing regimens"
Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice
Lily Z Yan, Emily V Dressler, and Val R Adams
JOPP First Published 21 Feb 2017

Bevacizumab induced hypertension (HT) is suggested, in several studies and several tumour types, to be a good prognostic indicator showing improved response rates (RR) and overall survival (OS). However, maybe HT per se is the key to this improvement. The authors of this small, single-site chart review study in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) set out to examine this premise. With the primary endpoint of improved RR in patients with any HT and two secondary endpoints. These being the effect of HT on OS in all patients and the effect of HT on overall RR in bevacizumab treated patients. The authors found HT per se did not improve RR nor did HT per se have any effect on OS. However, in the bevacizumab treated patients with HT, RR showed significant improvement as well as an improvement in survival duration. What is needed now is an international multi-centre study to accurately define the benefit. What a great opportunity for ISOPP members to collaborate in research!

Learning Objectives:

  1. Define the mechanism of action of bevacizumab;
  2. Describe previous evidence supporting association of bevacizumab-induced hypertension with improved treatment outcomes in a variety of disease states; and
  3. Summarize evidence supporting association of bevacizumab-induced hypertension with treatment outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).