Aflibercept for Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia: A Case Report

Overview

Journal Medicina (Kaunas)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2023 Sep 28

PMID 37763652

Authors

Bernat Villanueva

Adriana Iriarte

Raquel Torres-Iglesias

Miriam Munoz Bolano

Pau Cerda

Antoni Riera-Mestre

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Herein, we present the first described hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) patient treated with aflibercept for severe GI involvement after tachyphylaxis to bevacizumab, with promising results. HHT is a rare genetic disease characterized by systemic vascular malformations. Gastrointestinal telangiectasia is one of the major involvements that can produce chronic severe iron-deficiency anemia. Nowadays, support treatment with iron replacement therapy, red blood cell transfusions, and antiangiogenic drugs-mainly bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-are the main therapeutic options for this complication. The evidence of alternative drugs in patients with failure to this approach, such as tachyphylaxis to bevacizumab, is scarce. Aflibercept is a VEGF inhibitor with antiangiogenic properties approved for the treatment of different types of cancer and ocular neovascularization diseases.

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