Efficacy of Bevacizumab monotherapy on radiation-induced brian necrosis

Objective To explore the effects and safety of bevacizumab monotherapy on radiationinduced brain necrosis in patients with head and neck cancer.Methods Twenty-three patients with radiation-induced brain necrosis received intravenous injection of bevacizumab 5 mg/kg every 2 weeks for 4 cycles.Before and 2 weeks after the treatment LENT/SOMA scoring system,Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA),and MRI were used to evaluate the scores of subjective and objective items,cognitive scores,and the extent of edema.Adverse effects were observed.Results Two patients suffered from grade 2 rhinorrhagia after the first dose and had to give up the therapy.Twenty-one patients received the full dose of bevacizumab and showed improvement in clinical signs and symptoms.The MoCA score after treatment was significantly higher than that before treatment (t =3.166,P ＜ 0.05).MRI T2-weighted image showed that the volume of brain edema was decreased by (53.9 ± 22.13)％ on average (Z =-5.645,P ＜0.05).One patient showed mild exacerbation of the extent of focus on MRI after the second cycle therapy but still showed significant improvement at the end of four cycles.Of the 21 cases that successfully finished the whole treatment,one suffered from grade 2 rash and one had mild intracranial hemorrhage,however,no grade 3 to 5 adverse reactions were observed.Conclusions Bevacizumab monotherapy may have a rapid and safe therapeutic effect on radiation necrosis. Key words: Radiation-induced brain necrosis;  Bevacizumab;  MRI;  Efficacy;  Sides effects