Anlotinib as Exploratory Therapy for Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer: A Retrospective Study on Efficacy and Safety

PURPOSE: Survival of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC) patients is significantly shortened to around 12 months. Anlotinib is a new multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib in PROC patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: PROC patients treated with anlotinib in Jiangsu Cancer Hospital between June 2018 to September 2019 were recruited. Most patients received an initial bolus of 12mg orally once daily on days 1–14 of a 21-day cycle (except one received a dose of 10mg and another one received a dose of 8mg orally once a day). The adverse events (AEs) and efficacy were analyzed by CTCAE 4.0 and RECIST 1.1. RESULTS: Of all 15 enrolled patients, 12 patients received anlotinib as multi-line therapy and 3 patients received it as maintenance therapy. In the multi-line therapy group, eight patients received anlotinib monotherapy and four patients received anlotinib combined with chemotherapy. Ultimately, evaluation showed that one patient achieved partial response (PR), five patients achieved stable disease (SD) and one patient had progressive disease (PD) with monotherapy, yielding objective response rate (ORR) of 14.3% (95% CI=0.01–0.58) and disease control rate (DCR) of 85.7% (95% CI=0.42–0.99). One patient achieved PR, two patients achieved SD with combination therapy, yielding ORR of 33.3% (95% CI=0.02–0.87) and DCR of 100% (95% CI=0.31–1.00). Three patients with maintenance therapy were followed up for 5, 8, and 11 months, respectively. The most grade 1–2 AEs were hand-foot syndrome, nausea, and hypertension. Serious AEs (SAEs) (Grade 3–4) were observed in one patient with oral ulcer and another patient with hand-foot syndrome that were managed by dose reduction. CONCLUSION: Anlotinib was of promising efficacy and well tolerated in PROC patients. This is the first retrospective study about exploratory therapy for ovarian cancer patients with anlotinib.