The efficacy and safety of Apatinib mesylate in the treatment of metastatic osteosarcoma patients who progressed after standard therapy and the VEGFR2 gene polymorphism analysis

Designed as a retrospective study, a total of 105 metastatic osteosarcoma patients who progressed after standard therapy were included in this study. The metastatic osteosarcoma patients received 500–750 mg Apatinib mesylate according to body surface area until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity with 28 days one cycle. Overall response was evaluated after two cycles Apatinib treatment, then progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated, and safety data were recorded. Additionally. peripheral blood and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) specimens in the osteosarcoma patients were collected for the genotyping of VEGFR2 genetic variation and mRNA expression, respectively. Analysis on the association between genotype and baseline characteristics and VEGFR2 gene mRNA expression was analyzed. The univariate analysis of genotypes and prognosis was carried out by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, and multivariate analysis was adjusted by Cox regression analysis.

The objective response rate (ORR) of the 105 metastatic osteosarcoma patients was 37.14%, disease control rate (DCR) was 77.14%, median PFS was 4.1 months, and median OS was 9.0 months. Regarding the VEGFR2 gene polymorphisms analysis, only − 906 T > C was of clinical significance. The prevalence of − 906 T > C in VEGFR2 among the study population was as follows: TT genotype 62 cases (59.05%), TC genotype 36 cases (34.29%) and CC genotype 7 cases (6.66%), minor allele frequency of − 906 T > C was 0.24. Compared with patients with TC/CC genotype, patients with TT genotype showed longer median PFS (5.0 versus 3.1 months, P = 0.011) and median OS (9.8 versus 7.6 months, P = 0.032). There was no correlation between the polymorphism and adverse reactions. Additionally, the mRNA expression in 69 randomly selected sample indicated that the mRNA expression of VEGFR2 of the patients with CC/TC genotypes were significantly higher than those of the TT genotype patients (P < 0.001).

Apatinib was safe and effective in the treatment of metastatic osteosarcoma patients who progressed after standard therapy. The clinical outcomes of Apatinib may be influenced by the polymorphism − 906 T > C of VEGFR2 through mediating the mRNA expression of VEGFR2.