Dose adjustment of apatinib
toxicities, hypertension, neutropenia, diarrhea
HYPERTENSION, NEUTROPENIA
Compared with the patients using 500 mg apatinib as the initial dose, the occurrence of treatment‐related AEs in the subgroup of patients using 250 mg initial apatinib was more optimistic. Consequently, 7/31 (22.58%) cases of intermittent medication, including four patients in the 500 mg dose group and three in the 250 mg dose group, were detected. Among the 18 patients (18/31) receiving an initial dose of apatinib 500 mg, 15 patients required dose reduction once (apatinib 250 mg/day) because of grade 3 or 4 toxicities, and two patients required second dose reduction to apatinib 250 mg every other day due to severe hypertension or neutropenia. The average duration for using apatinib 500 mg was 1.115 months. Among the 13 patients with an initial dose of apatinib 250 mg, only two patients accepted dose reduction to apatinib 250 mg every other day because of severe diarrhea (Table 