Comparing the efficacy of bronchial artery chemoembolization combined with anlotinib versus anlotinib alone in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer

To compare the clinical effectiveness and safety of addition of anlotinib to bronchial artery chemoembolization (BACE) compared to anlotinib alone in the treatment of stage IIIA-IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no mutated driver genes. The clinical data of patients with advanced NSCLC diagnosed and admitted from January 1, 2020 to December 30, 2020 in 6 interventional centers were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into bronchial artery chemoembolization combined with anlotinib (BACE + A) group and anlotinib alone group. 103 patients with lung cancer who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in this study, 51 in the BACE + A group and 52 in the Anlotinib group. Patients in both groups were similar at baseline( P > 0.05). Tumor response, progression-free survival, overall survival and treatment-related adverse events were compared between the two group. The BACE + A group had longer OS (18.3 vs. 9.8 months, P < 0.0001) and PFS (8.7 vs. 4.1 months, P < 0.0001) than the anlotinib-alone group. Nausea/vomiting, myelosuppression, chest pain were common adverse events of BACE. Hypertension, fatigue, thyroid-stimulating hormone elevation, anorexia, hypertriglyceridemia, cough, hypercholesterolemia and hand-foot syndrome were common adverse events in the two groups, but less hemoptysis was in BACE + A group. In this retrospective cohort, BACE plus anlotinib was associated with longer OS and PFS than anlotinib alone, with manageable safety. These findings support further prospective evaluation in this selected patient population rather than establish therapeutic superiority. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000035313) [https//www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html? proj=57054].