Effect of apatinib mesylate combined with TACE in treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and its influence on serum levels of VEGF and MMP-9

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of apatinib mesylate combined with TACE in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its effect on serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and matrix metalloprotein-9 (MMP-9) . Methods: Forty-six patients with advanced HCC were randomly divided into observation group and control group from June to December 2015. The patients in control group were treated with TACE only, and the patients in observation group were treated with apatinib mesylate on the basis of the control group. The efficacy, adverse reactions, serum levels of VEGF and MMP-9 were compared between the two groups. Results: The disease control rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P 0.05) , but the total survival rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) . The incidence of adverse reactions was similar between the two groups, and there was no significant difference between the two groups. After operation, the levels of VEGF and MMP-9 in the observation group were (206.04±13.05) ng/ml and (1 604.56±15.25) ng/ml, while those in the control group were (225.36±11.42) ng/ml and (1 835.21±13.58) ng/ml, with significant difference (P<0.05) . Conclusions: TACE combined with apatinib mesylate is superior to TACE alone in the treatment of advanced HCC. Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; Apatinib mesylate; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Matrix metalloprotein-9