Biomedical Letters

Clinical efficacy and safety of apatinib combined with oral VP-16 for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer: Preliminary evaluation of a clinical drug regimen

Jiangang Liu 1, Bo Yan 1, Hui Xu 1, Ying Hou 1, Huqun Li 1, Yunsa Huo 1, Lei Zhang 2*

1 Department of Oncology, Zhongda Hospital Lishui Branch, Southeast University, Lishui, Nanjing, 211200, P. R. China

2 Department of Clinical Laboratory, Zhongda Hospital Lishui Branch, Southeast University, Lishui, Nanjing, 211200, P. R. China

Abstract

To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of apatinib in combination with oral VP-16 for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant advanced ovarian carcinoma. Twenty-seven advanced ovarian carcinoma patients were treated with oral VP-16 chemotherapy combined with oral apatinib mesylate (500 mg/d). CA125, VEGF, and CEA were examined every 3-4 weeks, and tumour changes were monitored by CT every 8-12 weeks. PFS was obtained by follow-up after discharge. For all patients, the ORR (including CR and PR) was 25.0%, and the DCR (including CR, PR and SD) was 75.0%. CEA and CA199 significantly decreased (p<0.05), but the decrease in VEGF was not significant. The average PFS was 5.13 months. The ECOG score had a significant effect on PFS (p<0.05), while there were no significant differences in PFS based on age (p=0.394). The main side effects of this regimen were hypertension, proteinuria, hand-foot syndrome and myelosuppression, which were tolerated by patients after active symptomatic treatment. Apatinib combined with oral VP-16 is an effective regimen for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant advanced ovarian cancer. This combination therapy should be widely used in clinical practice.