Apatinib monotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer after the failure of chemotherapy or other targeted therapy.

Background: Apatinib, a small-molecule inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2), has proven to be effective and safe for treating patients with advanced gastric cancer after second-line chemotherapy failure. As VEGFR-2 targeted therapy has made encouraging progress for the treatment of a broad range of malignancies, we explored the efficacy and safety of apatinib for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer after the failure of chemotherapy or other targeted therapy.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 34 patients (11 with squamous carcinoma and 23 with adenocarcinoma) who were treated with apatinib alone in a daily oral dose of 250 mg in the second-line or third-line setting from January 2016 to July 2017. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS).
Results: EGFR mutation or amplification was detected in 15 patients. The median PFS of the whole group was four months (95% confidence interval 0.3-7.7). A partial response was observed in 2 patients (5.88%) and stable disease in 19 (55.88%). The disease control rate was 61.76%. Common side effects of apatinib were hypertension (n = 12), hand-foot syndrome (n = 8), and proteinuria (n = 5), which accounted for 35.30%, 23.53%, and 14.71%, respectively, and no grade 3/4 adverse reactions occurred. Apatinib toxicity was controllable and tolerable.
Conclusions: Apatinib appears to be effective and safe for advanced non-small cell lung cancer after the failure of chemotherapy or other targeted therapy.
(© 2018 The Authors. Thoracic Cancer published by China Lung Oncology Group and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)