Single-agent bevacizumab as maintenance therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer: how long do we have to continue?

Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody directed against vascular endothelial growth factor. Many phase III randomized clinical trials have showed the efficacy of bevacizumab in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), and the US Food and Drug Administration has approved its use in first-line or second-line schedules for metastatic CRC. However, no randomized studies are available to answer the questions about the role of bevacizumab as maintenance treatment after induction chemotherapy and how long to continue the maintenance treatment. We report an explicative case where both these topics are represented. This is a situation of possible feedback to daily clinical practice. Probably, only a multidisciplinary and shared treatment modality can help define the best treatment for patients in order to offer the best therapeutic strategy, where a standard approach is not defined.