Trial reportBMC medicine2023
Safety and efficacy of apatinib in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma after the failure of two or more lines of chemotherapy (AHEAD): a prospective, single-arm, multicenter, phase IV study.
Trial report in BMC medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02426034 (Safety and Efficacy of Apatinib in Patients With Advanced Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma After Failure of Two or More Lines of Chemotherapy), which is not on this map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Safety and Efficacy of Apatinib in Patients With Advanced Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma After Failure of Two or More Lines of Chemotherapy (Ahead-G201): a Prospective, Single-arm, Multicenter, Phase IV Study
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of immunotherapy-based neoadjuvant regimens in locally advanced gastric cancer: a meta-analysis based on high-quality clinical trials.International journal of surgery (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of Nivolumab in advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC gastroenterology · 2024Pooled it
- Savolitinib in MET-amplified gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: a phase 2 trial.Nature medicine · 2026Trial
- Pathologic Response of Phase III Study: Perioperative Camrelizumab Plus Rivoceranib and Chemotherapy Versus Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer (DRAGON IV/CAP 05).Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2025Trial
- Neoadjuvant camrelizumab and apatinib combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for locally advanced gastric cancer: a multicenter randomized phase 2 trial.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- Apatinib resistance mediated by IRF9 nuclear translocation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.iScience · 2026Article
- Mechanistic study of TIMM44 mediating gastric carcinogenesis via the Gαi1-PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling pathway.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Apatinib Plus PD-1 Blockade versus Chemotherapy After Prior Immunotherapy in Advanced Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Biologics : targets & therapy · 2026Article
- Targeting the remodeled peritoneal ecosystem: a paradigm shift from tumor cells to the microenvironment in gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Gastrointestinal cancer: molecular pathogenesis and targeted therapy.Molecular biomedicine · 2025Review
- Disitamab vedotin plus programmed death-1 inhibitor for pre-treated HER2 overexpressed advanced gastric cancer: a multicentre retrospective real-world study.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- Emerging Strategies for Targeting Angiogenesis and the Tumor Microenvironment in Gastrointestinal Malignancies: A Comprehensive Review.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Cholesterol confers resistance to Apatinib-mediated ferroptosis in gastric cancer.Cell & bioscience · 2025Article
- Analysis of the correlation between the dose exposure intensity and apatinib in advanced gastric cancer: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Combination of cadonilimab (PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody) and apatinib as salvage therapy achieves partial response in MSI-H advanced gastric cancer: a case report.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Clinical advances and challenges of anti-angiogenic targeted therapy in gastric cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Disitamab vedotin combined with apatinib in gastric cancer: A case report and review of literature.World journal of clinical oncology · 2024Article
- Unveiling promising targets in gastric cancer therapy: A comprehensive review.Molecular therapy. Oncology · 2024Review
- Characteristics and patient-reported outcomes of long-term cancer survivors after apatinib-based therapy: an online survey.BMC cancer · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
35 authors at 20 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundApatinib, a highly selective VEGFR2 inhibitor, significantly improved efficacy versus placebo as a third- and later-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer in phase 2 and 3 trials. This prospective, single-arm, multicenter phase IV AHEAD study was conducted to verify the safety and efficacy of apatinib in patients with advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma after at least two lines of systematic therapy in clinical practice settings.
methodsPatients with advanced gastric cancer who had previously failed at least two lines of chemotherapy received oral apatinib until disease progression, death or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was safety. The secondary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Adverse events were summarized by the incidence rate. Median OS and PFS were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. ORR, DCR, OS at 3 and 6 months, and PFS at 3 and 6 months were calculated, and their 95% CIs were estimated according to the Clopper-Pearson method.
resultsBetween May 2015 and November 2019, a total of 2004 patients were enrolled, and 1999 patients who received at least one dose of apatinib were assessed for safety. In the safety population, 87.9% of patients experienced treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), with the most common hypertension (45.2%), proteinuria (26.5%), and white blood cell count decreased (25.3%). Additionally, 51% of patients experienced grade ≥ 3 TRAEs. Fatal TRAEs occurred in 57 (2.9%) patients. No new safety concerns were reported. Among the 2004 patients included in the intention-to-treat population, the ORR was 4.4% (95% CI, 3.6-5.4%), and DCR was 35.8% (95% CI, 33.7-38.0%). The median PFS was 2.7 months (95% CI 2.2-2.8), and the median OS was 5.8 months (95% CI 5.4-6.1).
conclusionsThe findings in the AHEAD study confirmed the acceptable and manageable safety profile and clinical benefit of apatinib in patients with advanced gastric cancer as a third- or later-line of treatment.
trial registrationThis study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02426034. Registration date was April 24, 2015.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.