Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2025
Phase II Trial of Pembrolizumab in Combination With Bevacizumab for Untreated Melanoma Brain Metastases.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02681549 (A Phase 2 Trial of Pembrolizumab Plus Bevacizumab in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma or Non-small Cell Lung Cancer With Untreated Brain Metastases), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Phase 2 Trial of Pembrolizumab Plus Bevacizumab in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma or Non-small Cell Lung Cancer With Untreated Brain Metastases
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adjuvant recombinant human endostatin combined with toripalimab (anti-PD-1) in locally advanced melanoma: an exploratory phase 2 clinical trial incorporating single-cell RNA/TCR/BCR sequencing.Molecular cancer · 2026Trial
- Risk Factors and Comparative Safety of Anti-PD-1 Combination Therapies in Advanced Melanoma: A Nationwide Real-World Cohort Study From China.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Immunotherapy in Melanoma: A Dynamic Frontier in Cancer Treatment : Author List.Current treatment options in oncology · 2026Review
- Mechanisms, Imaging Phenotypes, and Therapeutic Advances of Neovascularization in Brain Metastases.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Crosstalk in the brain tumor microenvironment: mechanisms, therapeutic strategies, and clinical advances.Military Medical Research · 2026Review
- Tumor immune-vascular crosstalk: synergy and translation of immune checkpoint inhibitors and anti-angiogenic agents in melanoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Unraveling vascular mechanisms in melanoma: roles of angiogenesis and vasculogenic mimicry in tumor progression and therapeutic resistance.Cancer biology & medicine · 2025Review
- Microglial reprogramming: a potential new frontier in enhancing immunotherapy for melanoma brain metastasis.Molecular oncology · 2025Article
- Clinical and experimental treatment of advanced melanoma with a focus on immunotherapy.Clinical and experimental immunology · 2025Review
- Targeting ferroptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis for cancer immunotherapy in melanoma: mechanistic insights and clinical perspectives.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAnti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy enhances PD-1 inhibitor activity in preclinical models and has been used to treat perilesional cerebral edema and radiation necrosis.
methodsWe conducted a two-institution phase II trial of bevacizumab and pembrolizumab in patients with untreated melanoma brain metastasis (MBM) (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02681549). Patients were anti-PD-(L)-1-naïve, and had ≥one asymptomatic, nonhemorrhagic 5-20 mm MBM, not requiring immediate local therapy or steroids.
resultsThirty-seven patients received four doses of bevacizumab and pembrolizumab every 3 weeks followed by up to 2 years of pembrolizumab. The brain metastasis response rate (primary end point) was 54.1% (95% CI, 36.9 to 70.5). The extracranial response rate was 56.3% (95% CI, 37.7 to 73.6). Median intracranial progression-free survival was 2.2 years (95% CI, 0.41 to not reached [NR]). Median overall survival (OS) was 4.3 years (95% CI, 1.6 to NR). Four-year OS rate was 51.6%. Grade 3 treatment-related adverse event rates from bevacizumab and pembrolizumab were 10.8% and 18.9%, respectively. Higher pretreatment vessel density in metastatic tumors and smaller on-therapy increases in circulating angiopoietin-2 were associated with response.
conclusionPembrolizumab with bevacizumab was well tolerated and demonstrated substantial activity in patients with untreated MBM with promising OS, justifying further evaluation of this regimen.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.