A review on bevacizumab and surgical wound healing: an important warning to all surgeons.

Bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech, Inc, San Francisco, CA), a humanized monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor, was recently approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.A PubMed and OVID search was performed using keywords: bevacizumab, Avastin, wound healing, VEGF, angiogenesis, and colorectal cancer. Our objective was to review the current literature in regard to bevacizumab and its adverse effects on surgical wound healing.