Abstract

Abstract- Introduction Bevacizumab a humanized antibody against VEGF is effective within the treatment of patients with several cancers However like several therapeutic agents important side effects such as arterial thromboembolism venous thromboembolism hypertension neutropenia proteinuria and hemorrhage are related to bevacizumab Thromboembolism is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with cancer Considerations have arisen relating to the chance of venous and arterial thromboembolism with the novel antiangiogenic agent bevacizumab a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody to a vascular endothelial growth factor which is wide employed in cancer treatment Methodology We performed a meta-analysis of published clinical trials of bevacizumab to quantify the risk of Thromboembolic events Fourteen studies following PRISMA guidelines and matching inclusion and exclusion criteria were collected in which a group of patients was either treated with Bevacizumab and concurrent chemotherapy and another group treated with Placebo and the same chemotherapy We calculated the Relative risk RR P 0 05 was considered statistically significant We used R version 3 3 1 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing for the analysis Results Total 12 280 patients were included Bevacizumab was associated with an increased risk of Arterial Thromboembolic Events at a high dose R R 1 6002 95 C I 1 604 to 2 2066 and Venous Thromboembolic Events at high dose R R 1 2433 95 C I 1 0375 to 1 4448 At the low dose no significant risk was seen