Preclinical impact of bevacizumab on brain and tumor distribution of irinotecan and temozolomide

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumour in adults. Prognosis of GBM patients is poor with median overall survival around 15 months. Temozolomide is the chemotherapeutic agent used in the standard of care of newly diagnosed GBM patients relying on radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy followed by chemotherapy alone. Irinotecan has shown some efficacy in recurrent malignant gliomas. Bevacizumab has been combined with irinotecan in the treatment of recurrent GBM and with temozolomide in newly diagnosed GBM. As the efficacy of GBM treatments relies on their brain distribution through the blood brain barrier, the aim of the present preclinical work was to study, in in vivo models, the impact of bevacizumab on brain and tumor distribution of temozolomide and irinotecan. Our results show that bevacizumab pre-treatment was associated with a reduced temozolomide brain distribution in tumor-free mice. In tumor bearing mice, bevacizumab increased temozolomide tumor distribution, although not statistically significant. In both tumor-free and tumor-bearing mice, bevacizumab does not modify brain distribution of irinotecan and its metabolite SN-38. Bevacizumab impacts brain distribution of some anti-tumor drugs and potentially their efficacy in GBM. Further studies are warranted to investigate other therapeutic combination.