Abstract:

Objective To explore the efficacy of apatinib combined with S-1 capsule in the treatment of patients with advanced recurrent and metastatic esophageal cancer. Methods A total of 140 patients with advanced esophageal cancer were selected as test subjects from January 2017 to January 2019 in Shandong Tai'an Cancer Prophylaction-Therapeutic Hospital. These patients were randomly divided into observation group (72 cases) and control group (68 cases) using random number table method. The patients in the observation group were treated with oral apatinib combined with S-1 chemotherapy, and the patients in the control group was only given S-1 chemotherapy. The short-term and long-term efficacy and adverse reactions of the two groups were observed. Results The objective remission rates of the observation group was 38.9% (28/72), higher than that in the control group (22.1%, 15/68), with a statistically significant difference (χ²=4.655, P=0.031). The disease control rate of the observation group was 88.9% (64/72), higher than that in the control group (61.8%, 42/68), and there was a significant difference between the two groups (χ²=13.993, P<0.001). The median progression-free survival of the observation group and the control group was 5.9 months and 2.7 months respectively, the median overall survival was 14.8 months and 7.9 months respectively, and there were significant differences between the two groups (χ²=5.477, P=0.026; χ²=6.083, P=0.014). The adverse reactions of the two groups were mild, grade 1-2, mainly including fatigue, leukopenia, hand-foot syndrome, hypertension and proteinuria, with incidences of 59.7% (43/72), 50.0% (36/72), 8.3% (6/72), 12.5% (9/72), 9.7% (7/72) in the observation group, and 51.5% (35/68), 57.4% (39/68), 17.6% (12/68), 4.4% (3/68), 4.4% (3/68) in the control group, there were no significant differences between the two groups (χ²=0.965, P=0.326; χ²=0.760, P=0.383; χ²=2.708, P=0.100; χ²=2.919, P=0.088; χ²=0.794, P=0.373). Conclusion Apatinib combined with S-1 is effective, safe and tolerable in the treatment of recurrent and metastatic esophageal cancer.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasms, Treatment outcome, Apatinib, S-1