Efficacy of apatinib on multiple advanced-stage nongastric cancers

Apatinib has been approved for the treatment of advanced gastric adenocarcinoma and gastric-esophageal junctional adenocarcinoma, but its efficacy is unknown for other advanced solid tumors.

We retrospectively reviewed the use of apatinib for multiple advanced-stage non-gastric cancers. Ninety-two patients from 7 hospitals who received additional treatment except apatinib more than once were enrolled.

The primary end-point was the overall response rate (ORR), and the secondary end-points included progression-free survival (PFS), disease control rate (DCR), overall survival, and adverse reactions. We categorized all the patients into six groups according to their cancer type.

In the lung cancer group, the ORR was 9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3%-23%), DCR was 88% (95% CI, 74%-96%), and median PFS was 3 months (95% CI, 1.9-5.4 months). In the cervical cancer group, the ORR was 25% (95% CI, 3%-65%), DCR reached 100%, and median PFS was 3.5 months (95% CI, 0.6-9.0 months). There were different ORRs between the other cancer groups. In addition, the most common adverse effect of apatinib was palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome (37%), followed by proteinuria (14%) and hypertension (13%).

These results suggest that apatinib might be effective for not only gastric cancer but also other carcinomas including lung cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer. Thus, apatinib is a promising targeted drug for multiple types of cancer.