Arterial hypertension occurring during antiangiogenic therapy has been correlated with the biological inhibition of the vascular endothelial growth factor-related pathway and may represent a possible clinical marker for treatment efficacy. The aim of our study was to retrospectively assess if grades 2–3 hypertension were associated with response to bevacizumab, progression-free survival (PFS) and survival in metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with first-line bevacizumab.

Patients with histologically proven, metastatic colorectal cancer receiving bevacizumab as first-line therapy in combination with irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil were eligible for our analysis.

Thirty-nine metastatic colorectal cancer patients were eligible. Eight patients (20%) developed grades 2–3 hypertension. A partial remission was observed in six of eight cases with bevacizumab-related hypertension (75%) and in 10 of 31 (32%) patients with no hypertension (P = 0.04). Median PFS was 14.5 months for patients showing bevacizumab-related hypertension, while it was 3.1 months in those without hypertension (P = 0.04). Median overall survival was not reached in patients with hypertension while it was 15.1 months in the remaining cases (P = 0.11).

Our data indicate that bevacizumab-induced hypertension may represent an interesting prognostic factor for clinical outcome in advanced colorectal cancer patients receiving first-line bevacizumab.