Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Cancer Med. 2019 Jun;8(6):2823-2831. doi: 10.1002/cam4.2179. Epub 2019 Apr 21.
Concurrent chemotherapy (CCT) is used in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) for improved local control, which could also be achieved by intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). And for N2-3 NPC, distant metastasis is the more important cause of death. This study aims to evaluate the value of CCT in N2-3 NPC when neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) of sufficient cycles is performed to eradicate distant metastasis. It enrolled 959 patients diagnosed with TxN2-3M0 NPC from July 2011 to December 2015 and treated with NACT of 3-4 cycles and IMRT. A propensity score matching (PSM) was made between patients treated with and without CCT (called the CCT and non-CCT groups, respectively), using a series of clinical characteristics (age, gender, T stage, N stage, NACT regimen, and EBV DNA) as covariates. After PSM, the two groups of patients were compared on survivals and acute toxicities. The results indicated that no difference was seen in the overall, disease-free, recurrence-free or metastasis-free survivals between the two groups. But compared with the CCT group, the non-CCT group had a lower patient proportion of myelosuppression, nausea/vomiting, oral mucositis, cervical dermatitis, xerostomia, and grade 3/4 myelosuppression and oral mucositis (all P values were <0.001). Hence, CCT appeared to bring more acute toxicities, instead of survival benefit, to N2-3 NPC patients treated with NACT of ≥3 cycles and IMRT. It should be used with cautions in these patients.
同期放化疗(CCT)用于局部晚期鼻咽癌(NPC)以提高局部控制率,强度调制放疗(IMRT)也可达到同样效果。对于 N2-3 NPC,远处转移是导致死亡的更重要原因。本研究旨在评估在充分周期新辅助化疗(NACT)消除远处转移的情况下,CCT 在 N2-3 NPC 中的价值。该研究纳入了 2011 年 7 月至 2015 年 12 月期间诊断为 TxN2-3M0 NPC 的 959 例患者,这些患者接受了 3-4 周期的 NACT 和 IMRT 治疗。采用一系列临床特征(年龄、性别、T 分期、N 分期、NACT 方案和 EBV DNA)作为协变量,对接受和未接受 CCT 治疗的患者(分别称为 CCT 组和非 CCT 组)进行倾向评分匹配(PSM)。PSM 后,比较两组患者的生存情况和急性毒性反应。结果表明,两组患者的总生存、无疾病生存、无复发生存和无远处转移生存无差异。但与 CCT 组相比,非 CCT 组骨髓抑制、恶心/呕吐、口腔黏膜炎、颈部皮炎、口干和 3/4 级骨髓抑制和口腔黏膜炎的患者比例较低(均 P 值<0.001)。因此,在接受 NACT 治疗≥3 周期和 IMRT 的 N2-3 NPC 患者中,CCT 并未带来生存获益,反而增加了急性毒性反应。在这些患者中应谨慎使用。