Apatinib Combined With Capecitabine Second-line Treatment of Advanced Gastric Cancer: a Single-arm Exploratory Clinical Pilot Trial

Gastric cancer is the one of the leading cause of cancer death in the worldwide. Gastric cancer originates from the most superficial mucosal epithelial cells of the stomach wall, which can occur in various parts of the stomach, and can invade different depths and breadth of the gastric wall. Without chemotherapy treatment the GC patients' Median Survival Time (MST) lasts only 3-4 months. Although treated with multi-chemotherapy MST has been improved, the drugs show strong toxicities in the patients. Thus the more accurate, lower toxicity, targeted antitumor drugs are put into second-line treatment program for advanced gastric cancer. Apatinib, a novel targeted inhibitor of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2), shows significant antitumor activity in the patients with GC. The purpose of this study is to determine whether apatinib plus capecitatine can improve progression free survival in patients with advanced gastric cancer.