Pretreatment Serum Ferritin as a Prognostic Indicator in Advanced Cancer Patients Treated With Apatinib: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract Background: The present study has evaluated the prognostic value of pretherapy serum ferritin (SF) levels in advanced cancer patients receiving apatinib therapy after multiline treatment for drug resistance. Methods: This retrospective cohort reviewed the clinicopathological characteristics and pretreatment levels of SF of 124 patients with advanced cancer treated with apatinib. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the overall survival rate (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and the log-rank test was used to assess the statistical significance. Univariate and multivariate analyses of Cox proportional hazard regression were used to assess the prognostic impact of advanced cancer. Results: Participants in this study were previously treated with at least two treatment regimens. 52.4% of the patients had the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS)≥2. Median PFS was 8.57 weeks, and the median overall survival was 9.43 weeks. The OS and PFS of patients with elevated SF were significantly shorter than those with low SF (p <0.001 and p <0.001, respectively). Conclusions: SF can be used as an important prognostic indicator for advanced cancer patients with the treatment of apatinib after multiline treatment for drug resistance.