Efficacy and safety of Anlotinib plus PD-1 blockade for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A Retrospective study

Abstract

Purpose: Both anlotinib and programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1) have been demonstrated anti-tumor efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in clinical. However, the number of prospective research of this combination therapy is limited in the literature. In this retrospective study, we aim to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib plus PD-1 blockade for the treatment of advanced NSCLC patients. Methods: 40 advanced NSCLC patients who received combination treatment at traditional Chinese medicine hospital of Kunshan were selected between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and 31 eligible patients were screened for further study. Progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were the primary end points. The safety of the combination treatment was assessed by the incidence of adverse events. Results: The combined therapeutic regimen of anlotinib and PD-1 blockade in 31 advanced NSCLC patients gained a median PFS of 6.4 months (95% CI 5.4-7.4 months) and the median overall survival(mOS) was 15.4 months (95% CI 13.4-17.4 months). Of all the eligible patients, 4 patients achieved partial respone(PR) and none of these patients achieved complete response(CR). The overall response rate(ORR) and the disease control rate(DCR) were 12.9% and 54.8% respectively. The common adverse events were fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, hypertension and hand-foot syndrome during the treatment.Conclusion: The combination of anlotinib and PD-1 blockade has promising efficacy for the advanced NSCLC patients and the toxicity is tolerable.