Retrospective study comparing anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody plus cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy versus chemoradiotherapy alone for stage II-IVb nasopharyngeal carcinoma and prognostic value of EGFR and VEGF expression.

OBJECTIVES

The benefits of adding anti-EGFR therapy to conventional chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remain uncertain, possibly because only a subgroup of patients show better outcome. To address this issue, we compared the efficacy of CRT plus cetuximab (CTX) or nimotuzumab (NTZ) to CRT alone for stage II-IVb NPC and examined possible prognostic indicators, including tumour EGFR and VEGR expression levels.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective study enrolled 1812 patients at initial NPC diagnosis at Nanfang Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University between January 2005 and December 2015. The cetuximab or nimotuzumab plus CRT group (CRT+NTZ/CTX) and the conventional chemoradiotherapy group (CRT) were matched by propensity scoring at 1:5, yielding 282 patients at clinical stage II-IVb with 47 in the CRT+NTZ/CTX group and 235 in the CRT group.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The endpoints of the present study were locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), overall survival (OS). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to investigate EGFR and VEGF expression levels in 31 patients of the CRT+NTZ/CTX group.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences in LRFS, DMFS and OS, haematologic toxicity reactions, and gastrointestinal reactions between CRT+NTZ/CTX and CRT groups. There was a positive correlation between EGFR and VEGF expression levels. Among CRT+NTZ/CTX patients, those with high EGFR and VEGF expression levels exhibited better DMFS.

CONCLUSIONS

Addition of anti-EGFR to cisplatin-based CRT appears to benefit only a subset of stage II-IVb NPC patients, those with elevated EGFR and VEGF expression levels.