Apatinib may be effective in clear cell sarcoma

Apatinib, a PD-1 inhibitor, showed promising effectiveness in patients with clear cell sarcoma (CCS), while the efficacy of camrelizumab remained inconclusive, according to a study.

In this retrospective study, 12 patients with CCS treated with apatinib and/or camrelizumab therapy between November 2018 and July 2021 were included.

Overall, 3 patients had partial repones (PR) and 4 had stable disease (SD). In the 5 patients treated with apatinib alone, 1 had PR and 2 had SD. In these patients, adding camrelizumab after progressive disease (PD) did not help. In the 4 patients who received a combination of apatinib plus camrelizumab, 1 had PR and 1 had SD. Of the 3 patients first treated with camrelizumab, all had PD; after the addition of apatinib 1 had PR and 1 had SD.

Patients who received combination therapy had significantly more grade 3 and 4 adverse events than patient who received monotherapy. Adverse events included increased aspartate aminotransferase and increased alanine aminotransferase levels.

The authors concluded that PD-1 inhibitors need to be investigated more in patients with CSS.

Reference
Wang J, Gao S, Yang Y, et al. Clinical Experience with Apatinib and Camrelizumab in Advance Clear Cell Sarcoma: A Retrospective Study. Cancer Manag Res. 2021;13:8999-9005. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S337253. PMID: 34887682; PMCID: PMC8650770.