Figure 4. Schematic depicting tumour and serum biomarkers that stratify survival in metastatic colorectal cancer patients following treatment with bevacizumab.

Up and down arrows indicate that altered levels (higher and lower respectively) of these biomarkers (red text) correlate with enhanced overall survival – a higher proportion of immature tumour vasculature, increased oxidative damage and lower levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines. For patients that have a lower survival, it is possible that these interconnected cancer-associated biological processes may have progressed beyond a point whereby subsequent treatment following surgery with anti-VEGF therapy is sufficient to enhance patient survival levels.