Patients With Pretreated SCLC Have Improved Outcomes

Updated data from a phase 2 trial show patients with pretreated SCLC have improved outcomes. Use of apatinib added to single-agent chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer in patients with prior treatments indicate a good efficacy and safety for the combination.

Data from a prospective phase 2 study (NCT03547804) indicate promising efficacy and a tolerable safety profile of apatinib (Rivoceranib) combined with single-agent chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who had received prior therapy for their disease. These results were presented in a poster at the 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) Singapore.

About SCLC treatments

While it accounts for around 15% of all lung cancers, SCLC is an aggressive malignancy with unsatisfactory treatment options in the second-line setting and beyond, with a median progression-free survival (PFS) of less than 3 months, the authors noted in their data.

Given this and the lack of targeted drugs or new chemotherapeutic agents in the advanced SCLC space, investigators from The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China, evaluated the efficacy and safety of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in combination with chemotherapy as a possible option for this patient population.

The prospective, single-center, single-arm clinical study—the initial results of which were presented at the 2019 WCLC—enrolled 31 patients from March 2018 through October 2019, 28 of whom were available for response evaluation.

In addition to one of the chemotherapeutic agents, irinotecan or docetaxel, 28 patients were initially given a dose of 500 mg apatinib once daily. However, the treatment plan was adjusted to a lower dose of 250 mg once daily due to the patients’ tolerance. If patients experienced grade 3 or 4 adverse events (AEs), the apatinib dose could be further reduced to 250 mg every other day.

The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS); secondary end points included overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), objective response rate (ORR), and the amount of adverse events (AEs) experienced.

Upon this updated analysis, the investigators noted an ORR of 25% (n = 7). DCR was 100%. Median PFS was 7.43 months and the median OS was 12.5 months.

A subgroup analysis found that patients with limited-stage disease had longer PFS compared with those with extensive-stage disease (9.17 months vs 4.33 months, P = .0013). Additionally, no significant differences in efficacy were seen in the subgroups of patients who received different initial doses of 500 mg versus 250 mg, or age (<60y vs ≥60y).

The most common treatment-related AEs were neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, hypertension, hand-foot syndrome, proteinuria, diarrhea, abnormal liver function and mucositis. The authors noted, however, that the incidence of grade 3/4 AEs was lower, and treatment was better tolerated when patients were given an initial dose of 250 mg apatinib plus chemotherapy.

Study shows patients with pretreated SCLC have improved outcomes

Overall, the authors concluded that for patients with advanced SCLC, apatinib in combination with single-agent chemotherapy was found to be a promising option with good tolerability, particularly at the dose of 250 mg per day.