Abstract:

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and adverse reactions of anlotinib combined with irinotecan in the third line treatment of metastatic esophageal cancer.Methods From October 2018 to October 2019, 52 patients with metastatic esophageal cancer who had developed distant metastasis after receiving standard concurrent chemoradiotherapy and failed second-line chemotherapy were selected from Lu'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Anhui Province. The patients were divided into experimental group and control group by random number table method, with 26 cases in each group. The control group was given intravenous chemotherapy with irinotecan. The experimental group was treated with oral erlotinib combined with intravenous chemotherapy of irinotecan. The clinical efficacy and adverse reactions of the two groups were evaluated after 2 cycles of treatment.Results Before treatment, there was no significant difference in Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score between the experimental group and the control group (76.15±7.52 vs. 74.62±8.59, t=-0.137, P=0.892). After treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups (70.77±6.28 vs. 72.69±8.74, t=-1.761, P=0.084). However, after treatment, the KPS score in the experimental group was lower than that before treatment (t=3.035, P=0.006). There was no statistical significance in the KPS scores of the control group before and after treatment (t=1.000, P=0.327). Adverse reactions in the two groups were mainly grade 1-2. The incidences of grade 1-2 myelosuppression and diarrhea in the experimental group were 61.5% (16/26) and 46.2% (12/26), which were significantly higher than those in the control group (19.2%, 5/26 and 19.2%, 5/26), with statistically significant differences (χ²=9.665, P=0.002; χ ²=4.282, P=0.039). The disease control rate of the experimental group was 73.1% (19/26), which was significantly higher than that of the control group (46.2%, 12/26), and there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ ²=3.914, P=0.048). The median progression-free survival of the experimental group and the control group was 52 days and 45 days, respectively, and there was a statistically significant difference (χ ²=4.692, P=0.032). Conclusion Anlotinib combined with irinotecan in the third-line treatment of metastatic esophageal cancer has obvious efficacy, but to a certain extent, it increases the incidence of grade 1-2 myelosuppression and diarrhea, and the KPS score is lower compared with before treatment.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasms, Anlotinib, Irinotecan