Real-World Data: Fruquintinib in Treating Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Fruquintinib, also called HMPL-013, was first discovered by Hutchison Whampoa Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China, and it is an oral vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitor. In clinical trials, fruquintinib has demonstrated a survival benefit in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of fruquintinib in real-world patients. We collected data from patients with mCRC treated with oral fruquintinib from 2018 to 2020 in six different institutions. Patients with mCRC initially received 5 mg of oral fruquintinib daily for 3 weeks. Progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated using the Kaplan???Meier method. The efficacy and safety of fruquintinib were also assessed. Seventy-five patients were involved in our study, and 29.3% of patients achieved stable disease (SD). Median PFS was 5.4 months (95% CI: 4.841???5.959). The treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) with fruquintinib were acceptable with grade 3 TEAEs of 6%. The grade 3 TEAEs were hand???foot skin reaction (HFSR), fatigue, and stomatitis. The ECOG performance status was associated with PFS. In this real-world study, the clinical activity of fruquintinib was consistent with what has been reported in previous clinical trials. The level of safety was acceptable, and the side effects were manageable.

Automated summary

This study retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of oral fruquintinib in mCRC patients, showing consistent clinical activity with previous clinical trials and manageable side effects in real-world settings.