Open Access

ARTICLE

Apatinib Plus Chemotherapy Shows Clinical Activity in Advanced NSCLC: A Retrospective Study

Jing Tang^*1, Xu Yong Li^†1, Jing Bo Liang^‡, De Wu^§, Li Peng^¶, Xiaobing Li^¶

* Department of Lymphoma in Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, P.R. China
† Central Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, P.R. China
‡ Department of People’s Hospital of Yicheng, Xiang yang City, Hubei Province, P.R. China
§ Centre of Molecular Diagnosis in Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, P.R. China
¶ Department of 1st Division of Thoracic Tumor in Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, P.R. China

Oncology Research 2019, 27(6), 635-641. https://doi.org/10.3727/096504018X15288447760357

Abstract

Apatinib is an oral TKI with antiangiogenic properties, and it is currently approved for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer in China. This agent has also been tested in other human solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Since the combination of chemotherapy and an antiangiogenic agent has been shown to be a feasible strategy in NSCLC, it is conceivable that a similar approach combining apatinib with chemotherapy may yield clinical activity. With this in mind, we investigated the efficiency of apatinib in combination with pemetrexed or docetaxel in advanced NSCLC. We treated a total of 20 patients with metastatic NSCLC adenocarcinoma with apatinib in combination with either pemetrexed or docetaxel from January 2016 to March 2017. The performance status of these patients was 0 or 1. All of these patients had been previously treated with two or more lines of treatment and had experienced disease progression prior to study enrollment. The overall objective response rate (ORR) was 30%, with 6 patients who had partial response (PR), 10 patients who had stable disease (SD), and 4 patients who had progressive disease (PD). The main adverse events were skin rash, hypertension, palmar–plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, diarrhea, and fatigue. Nearly 30% of patients required interruption of treatment as a result of toxicity. Our study demonstrated that apatinib combined with systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy has clinical efficacy in patients with disease-refractory metastatic NSCLC and provides evidence for further studies investigating apatinib-based combination regimens.

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