Salvage treatment with apatinib for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: No definitive chemotherapeutic regimen has been established in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who failed second- or third-line treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate apatinib, a VEGFR-2 inhibitor, in advanced NSCLC as salvage treatment.

METHODS: We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of apatinib in patients with previously treated advanced NSCLC from 2014 to 2015 in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital. Survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS: Forty-two patients were included in the present study. Four patients achieved partial response, and 22 achieved stable disease, representing a response rate of 9.5% and a disease control rate of 61.9%. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 4.2 and 6.0 months, respectively. The toxicities associated with apatinib were generally acceptable with a total grade 3/4 toxicity of 50%.

CONCLUSION: Apatinib appears to have some activity against advanced NSCLC when utilized as salvage treatment.