Efficacy and safety of low-dose apatinib in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

4104 Background: Apatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown promising effects on advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recently. However, studies on its efficacy and safety are limited with controversial findings. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the efficacy and safety of low-dose apatinib for the treatment of advanced HCC in the real world. Methods: Between January 2017 and August 2020, 178 patients with advanced HCC treated with apatinib at three different institutions were included for the present study. 174 patients received oral apatinib 250 mg daily and 4 received 500 mg daily until disease progression. 25 and 103 patients were also treated with immunotherapy and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) at least once, respectively. Tumor response and adverse reactions were evaluated according to RECIST 1.1 and CTCAE 5.0 respectively. Survival curves were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the prognostic value of variables in a univariate and multivariate setting. Results: During the 24-month follow-up period, 0 (0%), 28 (15.73%), 103 (57.87%) and 47 (26.40%) patients achieved a compete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PR), respectively. The overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were 15.73% and 73.60% respectively. Interestingly, among the 28 patients with PR, 27 received apatinib as the first or second line treatment and 21 received immunotherapy or TACE as a combined treatment, indicating early application of apatinib and combination treatment could provide better efficacy. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed the median overall survival (OS) and progressive-free survival (PFS) were 16.0 and 7.0 months respectively, which are significantly higher than previously reported survival of sorafenib in advanced HCC. Univariate Cox analysis indicated medication lines, distant metastasis, aplpha fetoprotein (AFP) level, portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) and combination therapy significantly affected OS and PFS. Multivariate Cox analysis confirmed third-line treatment (HR = 3.21; 95%CI = 1.54–6.68; p= 0.002), and PVTT (HR = 1.75; 95%CI = 1.13–2.70; p= 0.011) were independently associated with worse PFS. In contrast, apatinib combined with immunotherapy (HR = 0.52; 95%CI = 0.32–0.83; p= 0.008) or TACE (HR = 0.27; 95%CI = 0.18–0.40; p< 0.001) were independently associated with better PFS. Similar findings were also present on OS. The most common treatment-related adverse events were hypertension (29.21%), fatigue (16.85%), hand and foot syndrome (16.29%), vomiting (14.04%), liver dysfunction (6.18%), and proteinuria (6.74%). No severe (grade ≥3) adverse events were observed. Conclusions: Low-dose apatinib is able to provide effective and safe treatment for advanced HCC. Early application of apatinib and combination treatment could provide even better efficacy.