SAFETY OF BEVACIZUMAB IN ELDERLY MOROCCAN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC COLORECTAL CANCER

Background Colorectal cancer is the mostfrequent digestive cancer. The incidence and mortality of CRC increases in elderly patients.  Bevacizumab improvessurvival of mCRC patients at the price of  particulartoxicity profilethatcanbeincreased in an elderly population generally having comorbidities.  The aim of this studywas to evaluate the safety of use of Bevacizumab in elderlyMoroccan patients with mCRC in real life. Material and methods: This wasaretrospectiveobservationalstudyconducted in medicaloncology unit of militaryhospital Mohamed V of Rabat. The studywasconducted in a general patient population, includingelderly patients, with mCRC whohad been treated on first line Bevacizumab basedchemotherapybetweenDecember 2009 and May 2014. The primary objective was to assess the safety profile of Bevacizumab in elderly patients in combinationwithchemotherapy as first-line treatment of mCRC. We analyses the safety of Bevacizumab for patients olderthan 65 years, whichis a widelyacceptedagecutoff point for the definition of elderly. Results forty-seven patients wereincluded in thisstudy. The mostfrequentobserved adverse eventwas hypertension in 19% of our patients followed by Proteinuria(14%), Thromboticdiseases (10%) ,Seriousbleedingevents (2%) and Fistulae (2%). There was no case of Ischemicheartdisease or Perforations in ourserie. Conclusions Despite the lowstatistical power of ourstudy, the use of Bevacizumab in olderMoroccan patients does not seem to bring an excess of toxicity compared with published reports.These results must be confirmed in most important studies.