Low-dose anlotinib plus immune checkpoint inhibitors offers better efficacy and safety in advanced non-small cell lung cancer treatment

The combination of anlotinib with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has become a common treatment modality in clinical practice. However, the optimal dose of anlotinib to use remains unclear. We collected patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received programmed cell death-1 blockade combined with different dose of anlotinib as second-line or later line therapy. Subsequently, the efficacy and safety of the combination therapy as well as subgroup analyses of different doses of anlotinib were analyzed. Cox regression was performed to analyze significant factors correlated with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). A total of 50 eligible patients with NSCLC who received anlotinib combined with ICIs therapy were included, of which 27 received low-dose anlotinib (8 mg), and 23 were administered high-dose anlotinib (12 mg). The median PFS (mPFS) and the median OS (mOS) for all patients were 8.3 months [95% confidence interval (CI): 6.3-10.3] and 17.6 months (95% CI: 16.5-18.7), respectively. Subgroup analyses showed that patients treated with 8 mg of anlotinib plus ICIs had significantly longer mPFS than those treated with 12 mg of anlotinib plus ICIs (8.7 vs 6.7 months, P = 0.016). The overall incidence of adverse events was 68.0%, and the most common adverse events of all grades were hypertension. Meanwhile, the incidence of adverse events was higher for 12 mg of anlotinib plus ICIs than that of 8 mg of anlotinib plus ICIs (82.6 vs 55.6%, P = 0.041). Low-dose anlotinib in combination with ICIs for advanced NSCLC may be an effective and well-tolerated option.