Bevacizumab Therapy for Brain Arteriovenous Malformation

Brain AVMs are relatively rare, though their potential for ICH along with the existence of effective treatments makes their diagnosis and management essential to the community. The 2-4% annual incidence of such secondary ICH creates controversy regarding treatment for asymptomatic patients. Brain AVMs thus require multidisciplinary evaluation for optimal management especially for surgical grades III - V lesions that often require some combination of embolization, microsurgery, and/or radiosurgical treatment. Currently there is no designated medical therapy for bAVM, though there is growing animal and human evidence supporting a role for bevacizumab to reduce the size of AVMs in the brain and liver, respectively. This proposal is a pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab in humans with bAVMs.