Bevacizumab-based therapy in relapsed glioblastoma: rationale and clinical experience to date.

Relapsed glioblastoma (GBM) has an extremely poor prognosis and remains an invariably fatal disease, with a median overall survival of 6-7 months. Despite numerous clinical trials over the past 20-30 years, treatment options for relapsed GBM remain limited. In recent years, significant research efforts have focused on the use of antiangiogenic therapies for the treatment of GBM. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that specifically inhibits the proangiogenic VEGF, with well-established clinical efficacy in a number of solid malignancies, which is now under investigation for the treatment of GBM. In this review, we discuss the available data regarding bevacizumab-based therapy in relapsed GBM, highlighting its potential and ongoing challenges in this difficult-to-treat disease.