Endoglin inhibitor TRC105 with or without bevacizumab for bevacizumab-refractory glioblastoma (ENDOT): a multicenter phase II trial.

Glioblastoma is an aggressive and lethal brain tumor, with patients typically expected to survive for 14 to 16 months after diagnosis. Nearly all patients experience tumor recurrence once conventional treatment strategies fail, after which a drug called bevacizumab is used. However, subsequent treatment options are extremely limited. We performed a clinical trial in which we investigated how safe and effective a new drug called TRC105 (carotuximab) is in patients who no longer respond to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or bevacizumab. We tested TRC105 both with and without bevacizumab, since TRC105 might enhance the activity of bevacizumab. We found that patients survived for an average of 5.7 months when given TRC105 and bevacizumab in combination. These findings suggest that further clinical trials are needed to confirm whether or not this combination therapy is a useful approach in patients with glioblastoma recurrence.