Three RCTs, with 2,317 participants (range 104 to 1,400), met the inclusion criteria of the review.
There was no significant difference in metastatic colorectal cancer response rate for chemotherapy plus bevacizumab compared with chemotherapy alone.
There was a significant difference in favour of chemotherapy plus bevacizumab for progression-free survival (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.88; I2=88%) and overall survival (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.97; I2=70%). However, chemotherapy plus bevacizumab was associated with a significantly greater risk of severe adverse events (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.21; I2=54%).
Progression-free survival was significantly longer in the intervention group compared with the control group (9.8 versus 6.8 months), as was overall survival (20.7 versus 17.4 months).
Results of the correlation analysis and comparison of overall survival between chemotherapy regimens, derived from non-controlled and non-randomised trials, were also reported.