Efficacy of apatinib on advanced ovarian cancer patients who failed first and second-line chemotherapy

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy and safety of apatinib in the treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients who failed first and second-line chemotherapy. Methods: The clinical data of 100 patients diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into two groups,  with 50 patients in each group. One group was treated with apatinib mesylate (Apatinib group), while the other group was treated with gemcitabine (Gemcitabine group). Clinical efficacy, adverse reactions, and quality-of-life scores were were assessed, while the survival status of patients was recorded during follow-up. Results: After treatment, the objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were 24.0 % (12/50) and 70.0 % (35/50) in Apatinib group, and  12.0 % (6/50) and 52.0 % (26/50) in Gemcitabine group. In terms of adverse reactions, the incidence of hand-foot syndrome and hypertension were significantly higher in Apatinib group than in Gemcitabine group, but the incidence of nausea and vomiting, anemia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia were significantly lower in Apatinib group than in Gemcitabine group (p < 0.05). Follow-up results revealed the median overall survival (OS) of patients to be 10.1 and 9.0 months, respectively, in Apatinib and Gemcitabine groups. Results of the log-rank test showed that OS in Apatinib group was significantly longer than that of Gemcitabine group. Conclusion: Apatinib demonstrates clear effectiveness and a superior safety profile than Gemcitabine in the management of patients with advanced  ovarian cancer who did not respond effectively to multiple rounds of chemotherapy.