Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effect of apatinib combined with chemotherapy on quality of life and related complications in patients with advanced gastric cancer

Dan Hong¹, Yaning Wei¹, Aimin Zang¹, Zhiyu Wang¹, Lin Yang¹, Guanying Ren¹, Shenyong Su¹, Chong Zhang²

¹Hebei Key Laboratory of Cancer Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy, Department of Medical Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, Baoding 071000; ²Pharmacy Department, Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital, Hebei 072750, PR China.

For correspondence:- Chong Zhang Email: orenx4@163.com

Accepted: 27 July 2021 Published: 31 August 2021

Citation: Hong D, Wei Y, Zang A, Wang Z, Yang L, Ren G, et al. Effect of apatinib combined with chemotherapy on quality of life and related complications in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(8):1715-1720 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i8.24

© 2021 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effect of apatinib combined with chemotherapy on quality of life (QOL) and related complications in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC).

Methods: Clinical data for 102 AGC patients treated in The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University (January 2018 - December 2019) were retrospectively analyzed. The subjects were randomly and equally split into chemotherapy group and combination group. Both groups of patients were treated with 180 mg/m² of paclitacel, and patients in the combination group were additionally given 500 mg of apatinib daily, for a treatment time to disease remission in both groups. Clinical efficacy, QOL, complications as well as serum SIL-2R, VEGF and TNF-α levels in the two groups were compared to analyze the effect of apatinib combined with chemotherapy on AGC patients.

Results: Disease control rate (DCR) and overall response rate (ORR) of gastric cancer patients in the combination group were notably higher than those in the chemotherapy group (p < 0.05). After treatment, the serum SIL-2R, VEGF and TNF-α levels in the two groups decreased significantly, of which the levels in the combination group were clearly lower (p < 0.05). No notable difference in the incidence of complications was observed between the two groups (p > 0.05). After treatment, the QOL scores of both groups increased significantly, of which QOL score in the combination group was notably higher (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Apatinib combined with chemotherapy effectively enhances the clinical efficacy of AGC patients, controls the overexpression of serum SIL-2R, VEGF and TNF-α, and improves the QOL of patients without increasing adverse reactions. Therefore, the combination therapy is safe and effective.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Quality of life (QOL), Complications, Apatinib, Chemotherapy