The Efficacy And Safety Of Apatinib Treatment For Patients With Metastatic Or Recurrent Cervical Cancer: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background

This study was performed to assess the efficacy and safety of apatinib in patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer.

Methods

Twenty-six patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer and treated with apatinib until progressive disease or unacceptable toxicity were included in this multicenter, retrospective, observational study from January 2016 to April 2018. The primary end point was progression free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and toxicity. Toxicities were assessed according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events.

Results

A total of 26 metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer patients were enrolled in this study. No complete response (CR) occurred, 4 patients (15.4%) showed partial response (PR), 11 patients (42.3%) had stable disease (SD), and 11 patients (42.3%) had progressive disease (PD), with DCR of 57.7% and ORR of 15.4%. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 3.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0–6.3 months) and overall survival (OS) was 7.0 months (95% CI: 5.1–8.9 months) respectively. The most common adverse effects were hand-foot syndrome (50.0%), secondary hypertension (26.9%) and fatigue (26.9%). Three patients discontinued treatment due to grade 3 toxicities (one case for hand-foot syndrome, two cases for diarrhea) and 6 patients required dose reduction because of adverse effects.

Conclusion

Apatinib seems active in heavily-pretreated metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer. The adverse effects were moderate but manageable.

Keywords:

• epidermal growth factor receptor
• apatinib
• cervical cancer
• metastatic or recurrent
• efficacy

Abbreviations

VEGFR-2, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2; RECIST, Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors; CR, complete response; PR, partial response; SD, stable disease; PD, progressive disease; ORR, objective response rate; DCR, disease control rate; PFS, progression-free survival; OS, overall survival; CTCAE, common terminology criteria for adverse events.

Ethical Approval

This study has been approved by The First Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University’s ethics committee and has been performed according to the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was written by all individual participants included in the study.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY19H160021), Technology Development Funds of Wenzhou City (Y20150046) and the Young Talent Fund of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.