Treatment-related toxicities of apatinib in solid tumors: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Apatinib is a novel small molecular drug targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), which is being studied in multiple tumor types. We performed a meta-analysis to quantify the overall incidence and risk of hypertension, proteinuria, and hand-foot-syndrome (HFS) in cancer patients receiving apatinib.

RESULTS

Altogether, 820 cancer patients from 7 prospective trials were included for the meta-analysis. The incidences of all-grade and high-grade hypertension were 45.4% and 9.7%. The incidences of all-grade and high-grade proteinuria were 45.1% and 3.7%. The incidences of all-grade and high-grade HFS were 35.9% and 8.6%. The RRs of all-grade hypertension, proteinuria and HFS of apatinib compared to placebo were increased (hypertension, RR = 6.53; proteinuria, RR = 2.62, and HFS, RR = 11.45). The RRs of developing high-grade hypertension and HFS were substantially higher than that of placebo (hypertension, RR = 7.73; HFS, RR = 7.23), but not for proteinuria (RR = 2.56, 95% CI: 0.57-11.52).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Prospective phase II and III clinical trials of cancer patients receiving apatinib were searched and included. Summary incidences, relative risk (RR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by using either fixed or random effects models according to the heterogeneity of the studies.

CONCLUSIONS

Apatinib is generally well tolerated, and associated with increased risks of all-grade hypertension, proteinuria and HFS, and high-grade hypertension and HFS, but not high-grade proteinuria.