Low Visceral Fat Content Is a Negative Predictive Marker for Bevacizumab in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.

AIM: This study aimed to clarify the predictive impact of visceral fat on response to bevacizumab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Pretreatment computed tomography was used to measure visceral fat area (VFA) and patients with mCRC receiving first-line chemotherapy with/without bevacizumab were divided by median VFA value into two groups: high VFA and low VFA.

RESULTS

In the bevacizumab-treated group, patients with low VFA had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than patients with high VFA in univariate (median=21.1 vs. 38.9 months; hazard ratio=1.70, 95% confidence interval=1.06-2.70, p=0.03) and multivariate analysis (hazard ratio=1.85, 95% confidence interval=1.15-3.03, p=0.01). No significant differences were seen in OS between groups treated with chemotherapy alone. The VFA had a marginally significant modifying effect on the relationship between bevacizumab and OS (p for interaction=0.07).

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide the first evidence that a low VFA might be a negative predictive marker for response to bevacizumab in patients with mCRC.