Alimta vs alimta and avastin - 1245773

Hi Gail,
Good luck with your scans,

Here is comment from just a few weeks ago where Dr. West described this trial, "The fact that the ECOG 5508 trial is testing Avastin (bevacizumab) vs. Alimta (pemetrexed) vs. the combination shows that we don’t know the answer to which is better: that’s really why we’re doing the trial. The AVAPERL study done in Europe really suggested that Alimta/Avastin is better than Avastin alone, but it’s definitely not clear whether the Avastin adds significantly to what Alimta does alone." and Dr. Weiss said, "My practice for a PS0 66 year old is to consider using bev and if a patient tolerated pem/carbo/bev well, to consider using pem/bev maintenance. Future data will tell me if what I am doing is optimal or not."
http://cancergrace.org/lung/topic/alimta-or-alimtaavastin-for-maintenan…

Janine

Gail, here too is a link to search results from the terms alimta vs alimta avastin
http://cancergrace.org/search-results?q=alimta%20vs%20alimta%20avastin

I hope this helps,
I hope side effects have calmed,

We don't know if Avastin (bevacizumab) adds anything significant as a maintenance or 2nd or 3rd line therapy. We generally don't start Avastin after first line, and that's partly because it's quite expensive, the side effect risks aren't negligible (even if typically modest), and there just isn't evidence that it confers any significant advantage.

-Dr. West