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

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.