ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT03020979Updated Sep 3, 2026

A Clinical Trial With Apatinib for Subjects With Refractory Malignant Ascites

A Phase 2 interventional study of Apatinib in Malignant Ascites and Apatinib, sponsored by The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University. Recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-03.

Sponsored by The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jan 2017; still recruiting 9 years 10 months later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
120
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Malignant ascites is a severe complication of many types of human cancer. Animal and clinical analyses have shown that angiogenesis plays a critical role in the formation of malignant ascites. Therefore, drugs such as apatinib that target angiogenesis may control the development of malignant ascites. The study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib in patients with refractory malignant ascites.

Read the detailed description

The study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of apatinib in patients with refractory malignant ascites. A total of 120 patients with performance status 0-2 were enrolled in this study and 500mg apatinib tablets were administered orally, once daily until disease progression or intolerable toxicity or patients withdrawal of consent.

02

Conditions studied

  • Malignant Ascites
  • Apatinib

Browse trials for

03

In context

Ascites

247 studies on the registry are indexed under Ascites; 57 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 54 across 179 interventional studies indexed under Ascites.

Browse Ascites studies →

Lead sponsor

The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University is the lead sponsor of 18 studies on the registry; 13 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Persistent or symptomatic ascites with positive cytology secondary to any confirmed tumor type not amenable to cytoreductive surgery or additional chemotherapy
  • Patients may enroll in this study irrespective of previous therapy including diuretics, surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy
  • Must have received a minimum of two paracentesis procedures and a trial of diuretic therapy within 60 days of study entry
  • Age Restrictions: 18-75 years
  • : 12 weeks or more
  • Performance Status: 0-2
  • Able and willing to provide and comply with study and/or follow-up procedures
  • Normal organ and marrow function as defined by: Leukocytes >/= 3,000/mcL; >/= 1,500/mcL; >/= 100,000/mcL; Total within normal institutional limits; (SGOT)/ALT(SGPT) \</= 2.5 X institutional (ULN); Creatinine within normal institutional limits OR >/+ 60 mL/min for patients with creatinine levels above the institutional normal; Serum Potassium within normal institutional limits; Serum Sodium within normal institutional limits

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients having received anti-angiogenic agents as part of the treatment of their within 60 days prior to study entry
  • Current, recent (within 30 days of the first infusion of this study) or planned administration of chemotherapy (including all routes of administration), immunotherapy, biologic therapy, radiation therapy or any other anti-angiogenic therapy (e.g., bevacizumab, other tyrosine kinase inhibitors)
  • Current, recent (within 30 days of the first infusion of this study), or planned participation in any other experimental drug study
  • Pregnant women; A serum pregnancy test will be given to females of prior to study enrollment and the participant must agree to use adequate (barrier or hormonal methods) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation.
  • Un-controlled hypertension (defined as systolic blood pressure > 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure > 90 mmHg
  • History of hypertensive crisis or hypertensive encephalopathy
  • (NYHA) Grade III or greater congestive heart failure
  • History of myocardial infarction, unstable angina, stroke or within 6 months prior to study entry
  • Known CNS disease, except for treated .
  • Significant vascular disease (e.g., aortic aneurysm, requiring surgical repair or recent peripheral arterial thrombosis) within 6 months prior to study entry
  • History of gastrointestinal hemorrhage within 6 month prior to study entry
  • Evidence of bleeding diathesis or significant coagulopathy (in the absence of therapeutic anticoagulation)
  • Major surgical procedure, open , or significant traumatic injury within 28 days prior to study entry or anticipation of need for major surgical procedure during the course of the study
  • Core biopsy or other minor surgical procedure, excluding placement of a vascular access device or paracentesis/thoracentesis, within 7 days prior to study entry
  • History of abdominal fistula or gastrointestinal perforation within 6 months prior to study entry
  • Any bowel obstruction that has not fully recovered despite medical or surgical intervention prior to study entry
  • Evidence of bowel wall thickening outside the site of the known primary malignancy on baseline radiographs
  • Serious, non-healing wound, active ulcer, or untreated bone fracture
  • Proteinuria as demonstrated by a Urine Protein/Creatinine ration >/= 1.0 at screening
  • Known to any component of apatinib.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(18)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Histologically or cytologically confirmed

The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).

Your pathology report is the document that shows this.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)

The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.

It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
120 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    500mg apatinib

    Patients will receive 500mg of apatinib tablet orally, once daily.

    Drug: Apatinib

Interventions

  • Patients will take 500mg apatinib daily orally.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The repeat paracentesis response rate (proportion of subjects who have a doubling of baseline time to repeat paracentesis)

    Time frame: 12 weeks after initiation of study treatment

Secondary outcomes

  1. The time to the need for the first repeat abdominal paracentesis after the start of apatinib therapy as compared with historical control data.

    Time frame: 12 weeks after initiation of study treatment

  2. The mean number of paracentesis procedures required in each patient over the course of three months.

    Time frame: 12 weeks after the initiation of study treatment

  3. The effect of apatinib therapy on quality of life in patients with malignant ascites by using EORTC QLQ-C30 V3.0.

    Time frame: 12 weeks after the initiation of study treatment

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Qiong Wu
    Bengbu, Anhui, China
    Recruiting
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Jan 2017 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Sep 2027, 128 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 10, 2017
First posted
Jan 13, 2017
StartActual
Jan 2017
Primary completionEst.
Sep 2027
CompletionEst.
Dec 2027
Last update
Sep 3, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 3, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03020979
Lead sponsor
The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University
Responsible party
Yan Yang, MD, Ph.D (M.D. Ph.D., The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jan 13, 2017
Start date
Jan 2017
Primary completion
Sep 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 3, 2026

Study contacts

Qiong Wu, M.D. Ph.D.
Contact
byzlnk@163.com
+86-552-3074480
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Studies of the drug tested here: Apatinib

Start the discussion