During the course of this appraisal the European Medicines Agency conducted a review of the use of bevacizumab in combination with taxanes for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Following that review, the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended that bevacizumab, when used to treat metastatic breast cancer, should be used only in combination with the taxane paclitaxel.
This guidance updates and replaces terminated technology appraisal 147, Bevacizumab in combination with paclitaxel for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer, issued June 2008.
1.1 Bevacizumab in combination with a taxane is not recommended for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
1.2 Patients currently receiving bevacizumab in combination with a taxane for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer should have the option to continue therapy until they and their clinicians consider it appropriate to stop.