Apatinib combined with chemotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced breast cancer: An observational study

Abstract

Locally advanced or metastatic disease accounts for the majority of breast cancer-associated cases of mortality. Treatment options for patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease are limited. The current study aimed to explore the efficacy and safety of apatinib combined with chemotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced breast cancer in real-world clinical practice. A total of 85 patients with advanced breast cancer, who had previously been exposed to anthracyclines or taxanes, received combined treatment. Tumor response was evaluated by a computed tomography scan based on the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. Adverse events were graded based on the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. The Kaplan-Meier method and a log-rank test were used to analyze the univariate discrimination of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) by demographic data, baseline clinical information and toxicities. The combined effects of these variables were analyzed by a Cox proportional hazards regression model. At a median follow-up time of 9.7 months, 73 patients exhibited disease progression and 48 had succumbed to the disease. During the follow-up, 19 patients demonstrated a partial response (PR) and 53 patients achieved stable disease (SD), with an objective response rate of 23.2%. Additionally, 39 patients demonstrated a PR or SD for ≥24 weeks, with a clinical benefit rate of 47.6%. The median PFS was 4.4 months [95% confidence interval (CI)=2.8–6.0] and the median OS was 11.3 months (95% CI=8.9–13.8). No treatment-associated mortalities occurred. The most common adverse events of all grades included myelosuppression (49.4%), gastrointestinal reaction (45.9%) and fatigue (43.5%). Proteinuria was an independent predictive factor for PFS and OS. Apatinib combined with chemotherapy appeared to be efficacious for pretreated advanced breast cancer, with acceptable toxicity for real-world clinical practice.

Multicenter phase II study of apatinib single or combination therapy in HER2-negative breast cancer involving chest wall metastasis

“…In 56 patients with TNBC, the mPFS and OS were 3.3 months and 10.6 months, respectively; the ORR was 10.7% ( 16 ). In addition, results from an observational study investigating the anti-tumor activity and safety of apatinib combined with chemotherapy in 85 heavily and repeatedly treated ABC patients in clinical practice revealed an mPFS and mOS of 4.4 months and 11.3 months, respectively ( 32 ). A subgroup analysis of the patients with TNBC revealed an mPFS and mOS of 5.2 months and 11.4 months compared with an mPFS and mOS in the non-TNBC group of 4.3 months and 11.3 months, respectively.…”

The efficacy and safety of apatinib treatment for patients with advanced or recurrent biliary tract cancer: a retrospective study

“…Apatinib is an oral, highly selective VEGFR2 antagonist, and was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration for use as a single agent in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma after second line chemotherapy failure [ 5 ]. In addition, apatinib has also showed good clinical efficacy in a variety of solid tumors, including lung [ 6 ], liver [ 7 ], ovarian [ 8 ], breast [ 9 ], colorectal [ 10 ] and bone soft tissue sarcoma [ 11 ]. Preclinical studies demonstrated that apatinib affect VEGF-mediated cell proliferation and migration in cholangiocarcinoma cell [ 12 ], however, clinical use of apatinib in BTC was rarely investigated.…”

Long-term response with low-dose of apatinib combined with S-1 in pretreated patient with advanced squamous cell lung cancer

“…As another emerging agent of angiogenesis in China, apatinib has been approved as salvage treatment in patients with gastro-esophageal adenocarcinoma or advanced gastric adenocarcinoma as third-line or further lines choice. [ 5 , 6 ] Apatinib is widely attempted for the salvage therapy in multiple types of advanced/metastatic solid carcinomas including hepatocellular carcinoma, [ 15 ] breast cancer, [ 16 ] colorectal cancer, [ 17 ] and NSCLC. [ 18 ] However, reducing the dose of apatinib is adopted in majority of researches because of the potentially severe adverse events.…”