Dr. Bendell Discusses a Phase III Study of Apatinib in Gastric Cancer

Johanna Bendell, MD, director of GI Cancer Research Program, associate director, Drug Development Program, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses a randomized phase III placebo-controlled trial that explored apatinib as a treatment for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Bendell says apatinib is an oral, VEGFR-2 TKI. During the trial, the drug was studied in Chinese patients as second-line therapy for patients with metastatic gastric cancer. The study found that there was a statistically significant improvement in overall survival in the apatinib arm versus the placebo arm, Bendell says.

The toxicity profile is similar to other VEGFR TKIs but patients in this study also experienced fatigue. Bendell is hopeful that there will be more studies examining the efficacy of apatinib in the United States.

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