| 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. |
