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Neoadjuvant immunoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study

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Summary

Background

Although anti-programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) agents have been evaluated in the neoadjuvant setting for the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer, including oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC), the overall response rate is modest. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant nivolumab in combination with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for the treatment of locally advanced OCSCC.

Methods

OCSCC patients who underwent surgical resection within 6 months of treatment with nivolumab plus SBRT from December 2018 to February 2021 were analyzed retrospectively.

Results

All 30 eligible patients enrolled in this study well tolerated the neoadjuvant treatment with no serious adverse events (AEs). Of them, 27 patients (90.0%) achieved R0 resection, and 5 patients (16.7%) experienced procedure-associated complications. The complete response (CR), partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD) were 10.0%, 46.7% and 43.3% respectively. The major pathological response (MPR), complete pathological response (pCR) and clinical to pathological downstaging rate were 60.0%, 33.3% and 83.3% respectively. During the median follow-up period of 13.5 months, 26 patients (86.7%) who underwent surgical resection remained alive. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) at 24 months were 70.4% and 76.4% respectively.

Conclusions

Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus SBRT is safe and efficacious, and could be used as a potential neoadjuvant option for the treatment of patients with locally advanced OCSCC.

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Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are available upon reasonable request from correspondence author.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Peng Shen, Bo Qiao, Nenghao Jin, and Shuyan Wang contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Internal Medicine, Northern Medical Branch of the PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100094, People’s Republic of China

    Peng Shen

  2. Department of Stomatology, The 1st Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of China

    Bo Qiao & Nenghao Jin

  3. State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Department of Oral Medicine, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710032, People’s Republic of China

    Shuyan Wang

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  4. Shuyan Wang
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Contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to the conception of the study. SP and WS contributed to patient recruitment, data collection and clinical investigation. QB and JN contributed to data analysis and interpretation. All authors drafted and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peng Shen.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the institutional review board of the 1st Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital and carried out in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 2013). Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

No conflict of interests was declared in the study.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interests was declared in the study.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

Not applicable.

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Informed consent was obtained from all patients.

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Shen, P., Qiao, B., Jin, N. et al. Neoadjuvant immunoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study. Invest New Drugs 40, 1282–1289 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-022-01293-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-022-01293-9

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