TY - JOUR
AR - COR-2020-3-108
TI - Clinical Evidence on Apatinib in Treating Chemotherapy-Refractory Metastatic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
AU -  Leiming , Guo
AU - Chengliang , Yang
AU - Chunyu He, 
AU - Ke Li, 
AU - Lei Qiao, 
AU - Shuning , Xu
AU - Xiaoyuan , Wu
AU - Ying, Liu
JO - Clinical Oncology and Research
PY - 2020
DA - Wed 08, Apr 2020
SN - 2613-4942
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.COR.2020.03.08
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/clinical-evidence-on-apatinib_COR-2020-3-108 
KW - Apatinib, chemotherapy-refractory, metastatic, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
AB - Majority Chinese esophageal cancer patients have squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and with metastasis at
initial diagnosis. Treatment for metastatic ESCC where first-line chemotherapy failed is an unmet medical
need. Targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and vascular endothelial growth factor
receptor 2 (KDR) have been approved to be effective for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). We explored
the clinical relevance of these molecular signaling in ESCC cohorts and collected clinical evidence on
applying apatinib, a Chinese FDA-approved KDR inhibitor for late-stage gastric carcinoma, in 26 patients
with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic ESCC. The clinical response rate and disease control rate of these
patients to apatinib 500mg once daily regimen was 12% and 60%, respectively. The patients’ median
progression-free survival time (PFS) was 3.2 months (95% CI, 2.23-4.17 months) and overall survival time
(OS) was 5.3 months (95% CI, 4.46-6.14 months). The most common grade 3-4 treatment-related adverse
events included leukopenia (7.7%) and anemia (7.7%). No drug-related death occurred. In conclusion,
apatinib has favorable activity and acceptable safety, and could be a new treatment option for patients with
chemotherapy refractory metastatic ESCC.