The efficacy of anlotinib in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) patients with or without hypertension in ALTER0303: Anlotinib as a third-line therapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

e20503 Background: As a promising multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), anlotinib hydrochloride significantly improved overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in advanced NSCLC patients in the phase 3 trial (ALTER0303). Here, we demonstrated the efficacy of anlotinib in SCC patients with or without hypertension. Methods: Patients (n = 439) were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive anlotinib (12mg daily for 14 days in a 21 day cycle) or placebo. The primary endpoint was OS and second endpoints were PFS, ORR, DCR and QoL. The correlation between hypertension and efficacy (PFS and OS) was analyzed in SCC patients treated with anlotinib. Results: For different ECOG score (0 and 1) SCC patients (n = 46) in the anlotinib arm, the PFS was significantly improved in patients with hypertension in ECOG 1 group (7.00 vs 4.83 months, p = 0.043). There is no statistical difference in other subgroups. Moreover, for the SCC patients in anlotinib arm, PFS was significantly prolonged in patients with hypertension compared to the patients without hypertension (7.23 vs 3.23 months; HR = 0.36; 95% CI, 0.16–0.84; P = 0.001). However, the median OS of the patients with hypertension was numerically but not statistically longer than the patients without hypertension (13.93 vs 6.30 months; HR = 0.56; 95%CI, 0.26-1.22; P = 0.100). Conclusions: In the ALTER0303 trial, anlotinib significantly improved PFS with a potential benefit of OS for SCC patients with hypertension. And ECOG score does not affect the efficacy of anlotinib in SCC patients with or without hypertension. Clinical trial information: NCT02388919. [Table: see text]