Apatinib: A novel receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of gastric cancer

Metastatic gastric cancer is a lethal disease characterized by a very short overall survival, underlining a critical need of new therapeutic options. Unfortunately, although several molecular targets have been investigated, only very few recently approved agents, such as trastuzumab in the HER2-positive setting and ramucirumab, led to a clinical improvement in the outcome of metastatic gastric cancer patients. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) is one of the most potent angiogenic factors and is a signalling molecule secreted by many solid tumours. Since high VEGF expression is one of the characteristic features of gastric carcinomas, targeting VEGF is therefore considered as a promising therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer. In the scenario of possible new target therapies with particular regard to angiogenesis, apatinib is a novel receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor selectively targeting VEGFR-2. It is an orally-bioavailable agent currently being studied in several solid tumour types showing a promising activity in gastric cancer. Due to the recent positive results as a third line of treatment for metastatic gastric cancer patients, apatinib may be an interesting and novel type of targeted treatment for metastatic gastric cancer in several lines of therapy. In this review, we summarize the available data of apatinib, mainly focused on the clinical aspect, in advanced/metastatic gastric cancer.