Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Efficacy and safety of VEGFR inhibitors versus standard chemotherapy in Chinese patients with metastatic liver cancer: Results of a preliminary clinical trial

Dong Qian, Shuai Wang, Hongzhi Zhao , Chen Zhang

Department of the Third Surgery, TianJin Nankai Hospital, Tianjin 300100, China;

For correspondence:- Hongzhi Zhao Email: OmarWoodsgtl@yahoo.com Tel:+862227022268

Accepted: 29 December 2019 Published: 31 January 2020

Citation: Qian D, Wang S, Zhao H, Zhang C. Efficacy and safety of VEGFR inhibitors versus standard chemotherapy in Chinese patients with metastatic liver cancer: Results of a preliminary clinical trial. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(1):189-194 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i1.27

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate efficacy and safety of vandetanib with and without standard chemotherapy in Chinese patients with metastatic liver cancer.

Methods: Patients with confirmed diagnosis of metastatic liver cancer were randomized to receive vandetanib (300 mg per day in 28 days cycle) intravenously or standard chemotherapy (FOLFOX4) plus best supportive care. Efficacy measures such as overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and progression-free survival (PFS) were assessed after study drug treatment. Safety of vandetanib and FOLFOX4 was also assessed. Survival time with respect to disease progression was also assessed.

Results: Vandetanib + standard chemotherapy-based regimens showed significantly higher OS benefit when compared to vandetanib and chemotherapy alone. Objective response rate (ORR) was also favorable among the patients treated with combination therapy when compared with monotherapy. A similar trend was noted for PFS; treatment with vandetanib + chemotherapy showed significantly longer PFS when compared to vandetanib and chemotherapy alone, respectively. Trial results demonstrated that vandetanib as a monotherapy or in combination with standard chemotherapy appears to be safe.

Conclusion: The results of this trial may aid clinicians to select appropriate therapeutic intervention for patients with metastatic liver cancer.

Keywords: Vandetanib, Metastatic liver cancer, Chemotherapy, FOLFOX4, VEGFR inhibitors